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LOUIS NAPOLEON: 



IS HE TO BE 



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THE ANTICHRIST? 



BY 



DAYID K LORD. 



NEW YORK : 

FRANKLIN KNIGHT, 

1866. 



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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S66, by 

DAVID N. LORD, 

In the Clerk's Office of the United States District Court for the Southern 
District of New York. 










JOHN J. REED, PRINTER, \ vj> «-*"^ > 

43 Centre Street,N^ Y. 



PEEF ACE. 



Is Louis Napoleon one of the line of mon- 
archs represented by the seventh head of the 
wild beast of the Apocalypse ? Is he to become 
the imperial master of the old Western Eoman 
empire ? Is he to be the great agent in the 
restoration of the Jews ? Is he to persecute the 
witnesses, and consign them to martyrdom 1 
Is he to be the Antichrist, and to perish at the 
advent of Christ ? 

Is the Son of God in two, three or four years, 
to come in the clouds, and enter on his millen- 
nial reign? 

Inquiries like these have been put forth for 
several years in Great Britain, and lately in the 
United States, and in Canada, and answered 
by their authors with great assurance in the 



IV PREFACE. 



affirmative ; and a considerable body of persons 
have been drawn to accept them, and adjust to 
them their expectations of the future. 

How large the curiosity is that is felt in this 
country in regard to them, is seen from the fact 
that near twenty thousand copies of the chief 
work — in its successive forms — in which they 
have been presented, have been distributed 
here. No confutation of them, so far as I am 
aware, has appeared. 

Those who desire a knowledge of their im- 
port, will find in this volume a statement, on 
the one side, of their principal elements, and 
proofs of their groundlessness and error ; and 
on the other, a brief exhibition of the teachings 
of the Scriptures in respect to the great events 
that are to precede, attend, and follow Christ's 
second coming, in which the views presented 
of the closing scenes of the present dispensa- 
tion, and the peculiarities of that which is then 
to be introduced, differ much from those that 
are generally entertained. 



CONTENTS. 



4 m 



INTRODUCTION. 

The French Eevolution awakened a fresh attention to the Prophecies — 
Mr. Faber and Mr. Frere maintained that Napoleon Buonaparte or 
his Dynasty was the Power represented by the Seventh Head of the 
Wild-beast of the Apocalypse, 11 

CHAPTER I. 

Mr. Faber's View of the Wild-beast of Seven Heads— He failed to verify 
it— He mistook the class of Rulers who were represented by the Sixth 
Head of that Symbol — He erred in respect to the Head which pre- 
ceded the Sixth, the Deadly Wound inflicted on the Seventh Head, 
and the Restoration of that Head to Power, 15 

CHAPTER II. 

Mr. Faber is equally unsuccessful in his endeavor to prove that neither 
the Power denoted by the Sixth, nor by the Seventh Head, held the 
Supreme Rule of the Empire during the Imperial Pagan and Christian 
Lines, from the Accession of Augustus to the Fall of the Western 
Empire, 25 

CHAPTER III. 

Mr. Faber fails equally, in his Theory, that there was a Line of Emperors 
in the Western Empire, from Augustulus to Napoleon Buonaparte and 
Louis Napoleon, that was represented by a Head of the Wild Beast, 39 



VI CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IV. 

Mr. Faber's Chronological Theory is also erected in a large degree on 
Supposititious Grounds, and Misrepresents alike the Word of God and 
the Facts of History, 60 

CHAPTER Y. 

The principal writers who have embraced Mr. Faber's theory respecting 
the wild beast ; and his chronology ; and who hold with him that 
Louis Napoleon is symbolized by the seventh head of the beast, and is 
to be the Antichrist, »».-.» 96 

CHAPTER YI. 

Their Theory of a League by Louis Napoleon with the Jews in reference 
to their Kestoration to their National Land — Mr. Baxter's Views of its 
Date — Sir Edward Denny's Statements respecting its Time, and its 
Stipulations — Dr. Tregelles' Views of its Object and Period — Mr. 
Beale's Estimate of its Date, and the Period through which its Engage- 
ments are to extend, 121 

CHAPTER VII. 

These Writers deny that Christ's Work foreshown (Daniel ix. 24) has 
been Wrought, and affirm that it is yet Future — Mr. Baxter's and Dr. 
Tregelles' Views— Rev. B. W. Newton's Statements, 139 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Their theory respecting the futurity of the Seventieth Week of Daniel. 
Mr. Baxter's views ; The theory of Dr. Tregelles ; Eev. B. W. Newton's 
representations, 160 

CHAPTER IX. 

Some of these Writers maintain that many of the Prophecies are to have 
a Double Fulfillment, 186 



CONTENTS. vil 

CHAPTER X. 

Mr. Baxter's Theory that the Symbols taken from the Material World are 
to Appear in their Proper Nature, in a Second Fulfillment, which he 
holds is to take place, 197 

CHAPTER XI. 

Their Notion of the Covenant bet-ween Louis Napoleon and the Jews. 
Their Views of Antichrist drawn from Ancient "Writers, 204 

CHAPTER XIL 

The Error of their notion of a League between Louis Napoleon and the 
Jews — Their false Construction of Daniel ix. 27 — The Principles on 
which Symbols are used — Time as a Symbol employed in the relation 
of Analogy, 222 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Dr. Tregelles' Error in regard to the Horns of Daniel vii. and Viii —They 
are not Symbols of the same Power ; their Persecutions are not the 
same ; nor are their Blasphemies alike — No Temple is to be built at 
Jerusalem by the Israelites who first return ; no Sacrifices are to be 
offered by them — There is no Proof that the Man of Sin is to set him- 
self in a Temple there — There is none that there is to be a Persecution 
of the True Worshipers in Palestine at that period, 241 

CHAPTER XIV. 

There is no proof that an Image is to be setup by Antichrist in a Temple 
at Jerusalem — That Notion is derived by these Writers from Apollina- 
rius — The Absurdity of the Views of the Image held by Dr. Tregelles, 
Mr. Baxter and others — The reason that Apollinarius assumed that an 
Idol or Statue was to be placed in the Temple, and that he with others 
maintained that Sacrifices are to be offered there ; that there the 
Abomination of Desolation is to be Exhibited ; and the other Peculiar- 
ities of their Constructions of Daniel — The Ground on which he and 
others Interpreted the 1260, and 1290 Days, as the measure of Anti- 
christ's Career, 256 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEE XY. 

Dr. Tregelles' Views of the Symbols of Time — His Error in regard to 
the Meaning of Shabua, Week, 278 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Dr. Tregelles errs respecting the Relation in which a Time, Times, and 
Half a Time are employed— He mistakes in his Views of Daniel xii. 7. 
His denial that the twelve hundred and sixty days, forty-two 
months, and twenty-three hundred days are used as Symbols of 
longer Periods than they themselves literally express — His error in 
regard to Nebuchadnezzar's Seven Times, 306 

CHAPTEE XVII. 

That Periods of Time are used as Symbols of greater Periods than them- 
selves is proved on a vast scale by Events; as in the Conquest by the 
Romans of the Greek Empire, their Destruction of Jerusalem, and 
their Persecution of the Saints, 327 

CHAPTEE XVIH. 

Dr. Tregelles' Denial that the Kings denoted by the ten Horns rose at 
the time of the Conquest of the Roman Empire by the Goths — The rise 
and career of the Power denoted by the eleventh Horn, demonstrates 
that the 1260 days are Symbols of an equal Number of Years — It is 
proved also by the Prophecy of the second Beast and the Lnage, 340 

CHAPTEE XIX. 

The Errors of these "Writers in respect to the Division of the Roman 
Empire into the eastern and western — Their mistaken Notion that the 
four Kingdoms of the Greek Empire are to be revived, 354 

CHAPTEE XX. 

Their Error in regard to the Time of Christ's Advent— The Translation 
of the Hundred Forty -Four Thousand— The Wise Virgins— The Man- 
child, 367 



CONTENTS. IX 

CHAPTER XXL 

The point to which the Fulfillment of the Prophecies has advanced — 
The Fifth and Sixth Yials — The Prophecies yet to be accomplished — 
The Sixth Seal symbolizes the Descent of the Powers denoted by the 
Wild Beast of Ten Horns to Hades — The Prediction of its return in a 
new form, and resumption of the Throne of the Western Eoman Em- 
pire — The Eenationalization of the Catholic Hierarchies — A fresh 
persecution of the true Worshipers, 381 

CHAPTER XXII. 

The questions to be debated between the Witnesses and the Imperial 
Chief, the Kings, and the Catholic Hierarchy, that are to rise to 
power at the ascent of the wild beast from the abyss, and persecute 
them— Great changes to be wrought in the views of believers and 
others, in respect to the nationalization of Churches — The death of 
the Witnesses: their resurrection and ascension to Heaven — The effect 
of these events on the persecutors, 403 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

The end of the Second Woe, or Fall of the Turkish Power— The Seventh 
Trumpet — The great events foreshown under the first five Seals — The 
Predictions under the Sixth — The Seventh Seal — The Trumpets — The 
Vision, chap. xii. of the Woman and the Dragon — The War of Michael 
and of Satan — The Vision, chap. xiii. of the Wild Beast from the Sea — 
The Beast from the Land and the Image — The Visions of ch. xiv., xv., 
xvi 422 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Emission of unclean Spirits — The Sealing of the Servants of God — 
The flight of the Angel bearing the Gospel — The fall of Babylon — 
The third Angel uttering a warning not to worship the beast, nor the 
image — The destruction of Babylon, 440 

1* 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXV. 

The Man of Sin— Return of a part of the Israelites— Resurrection of the 
Holy Dead — The change of the Living— The binding of Satan— The 
Advent of Christ, and Battle of Armageddon, 475 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

The New Creation of the Heavens and Earth— The Judgment of the Liv- 
ing Nations — The Return of the Israelites who still remain in Disper- 
sion — The Means by which the Race is to be delivered from Sin — The 
events that are to follow the Thousand Years of Christ's Reign— The 
Release of Satan, the Revolt of a Multitude — Their Destruction — 
Satan's Doom — The Last Resurrection and Judgment — The Surrendry 
of the Unfallen Worlds to the Father — Christ's Everlasting Reign 
on the Earth, and the continued Redemption of Men through endless 
ages, 496 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

The Grandeur of Christ's Purposes — The Contrast which the mistaken 

views of the Writers I have cited present to his designs — The Faults 

of other Expositors of the Prophecies — A Considerable Period is yet 

to pass before the Coming of Christ — The Verification of the Sixth Seal 

will indicate the approach of the great Events that are to follow the 

Reconstruction of the Fallen Monarchies, and will give birth to vast 

Changes in the Faith of the true Church — The Certainty that Louis 

Napoleon cannot survive the Sixth Seal, and therefore cannot be the 
Antichrist, 522 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

The Agents by whom the Monarchies are to be overthrown — The Motive 
that is to prompt them to that Measure — The Effect of the recent 
Struggle between Prussia, Austria and Italy, on the Policy of the 
Rulers — A knowledge of these Themes important to all classes — The 
joy-inspiring Prospect that is unfolding to our Race 539 



I N T K O D U C T I O N" . 

The French Revolution awakened a fresh attention to the Prophecies^ 
Mr. Faber and Mr . Frere maintained that Napoleon Buonaparte or 
his Dynasty was the Power represented by the Seventh Head of the 
Wild-beast of the Apocalypse. 

The Trench Revolution, which burst like a tempest 
on the world toward the close of the last century, and 
the long train of wars and conquests under Buona- 
parte, by which Holland, Italy, Egypt, Switzerland, 
Prussia, Bavaria, Spain, Portugal, and other territo- 
ries, were brought under his sway, impressed many 
persons in Great Britain with the feeling, that events 
so extraordinary, and so likely to exert an important 
influence on the w T hole circle of the civilized nations, 
must have a place in the revelations of the - Scrip- 
tures, respecting the great actors and catastrophes 
that are to precede and attend the second coming of 
Christ. The question arose : " To which of the great 
powers symbolized in Daniel and John, that were to 
trample down the nations, and steep the earth in 
slaughter, does Napoleon belong?" And as he is 
not individually depicted in those prophets, and as 
most of the great actors whom they foreshow, had 
already passed from life, it was assumed that he 
must be of that succession of conquerors and tyrants, 



INTRODUCTION. 



that are represented by the wild-beast of seven 
heads and ten horns, that emerged from the sea, 
Eev. xiii. 1, and that are to go on in their career, 
till the coming of the Son of God in the clouds. 

Among the first who assigned him a place under 
that symbol, were Mr. Faber and Mr. Frere ; Mr. 
Faber maintaining that Buonaparte was denoted by 
the seventh head of the beast, which received a death- 
wound, and was healed, Sac. Gal. vol. Hi. p. 115, 
edition 1844 : and Mr. Frere, that he was at first 
symbolized by the seventh head of that monster, but 
was at length represented by an eighth head, Comb. 
View, p. 105; edition 1815. 

The persuasion that Buonaparte filled the sphere 
ascribed to him by Mr. Faber, seems gradually to 
have met a large acceptance. It was not only held 
by Mr. Frere, who published his Combined Yiew 
in 1814 ; but others soon followed in their train. A 
still larger number became converts to their theory 
in the period from the expulsion of Charles X., in 
1830; to the fall of Louis Philippe, in 1848 ; and since 
the assumption of the imperial sceptre by Louis Na- 
poleon, it has been reasserted by a large group of 
authors with great earnestness, and connected with 
other peculiar views that are fraught with important 
errors : such as that the symbolical and chronological 
prophecies have a double fulfillment ; that the seven- 
tieth week of Daniel is yet future ; that Louis Napo- 
leon is the Antichrist ; that he is the personage fore- 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

shown Dan. ix. 27, who was to confirm a covenant 
with many of the Jews ; that he is to aid that peo- 
ple in returning to their national land ; that he is to 
persecute and slay the witnesses ; that he is to 
perish in the battle of Armageddon; and finally, 
that Christ's coining in the clouds would take place 
in 1S65-1866, or at the latest, within two, three or 
four years from the present time. 

Their chronology is also an important element in 
their system: as they attempt to determine the 
period occupied by the four great empires ; the com- 
mencement and close of the twelve hundred and 
sixty days ; the epoch of the seventh trumpet, and 
other important dates and events. The question 
whether the scheme of these writers is truthful or 
not, turns therefore on the question, first, whether 
their theory of the wild-beast is valid or not ; as it is 
upon that that all their representations respecting 
Napoleon Buonaparte and Louis Napoleon proceed : 
and next on the question whether their chronology 
is accurate : as if their system of dates and times is 
mistaken, their whole scheme of constructions falls 
with it ; and finally, the character of the other parts 
of their system is to be determined by the teachings 
of the Scriptures and facts of history which they 
respect. If they are shown to be mistaken, their 
overthrow will complete the confutation of the 
theories they maintain respecting the wild-beast, the 
Buonapartes, and the age and epochs of the world. 



u 



SODUCTIOy. 



I shall, therefore, proceed first, to show the inac- 
curacy and groundlessness of their theory of the wild- 
beast : next, to confute their estimates of the dates 
and periods of Daniel and John: thirdly, to point 
ont their errors in respect to the principles on which 
the prophecies are to be interpreted, and confute 
their misrepresentations of Daniel and John : and 
finally, to present a view of the great predictions of 
the divine word that are yet to be fulfilled, and indi- 
cate the order as far as may be, in which they are to 
meet their accomplishment. 



me. faber's theory. 15 



CHAPTEE I. 

Mr. Faber's View of the Wild-beast of Seven Heads— He failed to verify 
it — He mistook the class of Rulers who were represented by the Sixth 
Head of that Symbol — He erred in respect to the Head which pre- 
ceded the Sixth, the Deadly Wound inflicted on the Seventh Head, 
and its Restoration to Power. 

The question that first demands consideration is, 
whether the views presented by these writers of the 
wild-beast of seven heads and ten horns, are in har- 
mony with the teachings of the Apocalypse and 
Daniel, or irreconcilable with them. I shall direct my 
argument against Mr. Faber, without citing other 
authors ; inasmuch as those who hold that Napoleon 
Buonaparte and Louis Napoleon, are represented by 
the seventh head of the beast, or the beast itself in its 
last form, build their conclusion on essentially the 
grounds on which he founds his. After stating that 
the classes of rulers, represented by the first five heads 
of the beast, were Kings, Consuls, Dictators, Decem- 
virs, and Military Tribunes, he presents his theories 
respecting the sixth and seventh heads, in the fol- 
lowing passage : 

" The chronologically sixth ruling head was the Triumvirate. 
This rose with Pompey, Crassus and Caesar, in the year A. C. 
69 ; sank into quiescence in the year A. C. 48, when, after the 



16 me. faeee's theory of 

death of Crassus and Pompey, Csesar was declared by the Senate 
and people, consul for five years, and dictator for one ; awoke 
to activity in the year A. 0. 43, with Anthony, Lepidus, and 
Octavius, and became extinct in the year A. 0. 27, when at the 
call of Angnstns, the first head, or the Eoman imperial kingship, 
awoke after its long slumber of near five centuries. 

"The chronological seventh ruling head, was the Francic 
kingship, or emperorship. Since this head, though it was the 
seventh in the order of origination, immediately succeeded the 
first head, inasmuch as the five other heads had fallen in the 
time of John, while the first head was then in active existence ; 
it will be necessary to note the vicissitudes of the first head, 
until that first head finally fell in the year A. C. 1806, so that we 
may be brought in regular course to the rise of the seventh head. 

" The chronological first head, arose with Eomulus in the 
year A. C. 753, and after a long quiescence which commenced 
in the year A. C. 508, it awoke to activity in the year A. C. 27, 
when by the Senate and people, the principality of the whole of 
the empire was conferred on Octavius Caesar, with the name of 
Augustus, which was ever afterwards borne by him and his 
successors." 

" There are writers," he says, who assume ' : that the head in 
St. John's time, fell, when Augustulus was deposed, and when 
the Imperial Dignity was extinguished in the West. That 
assumption, however, rests upon no solid foundation. The 
western line of the Eoman Emperors did indeed expire with 
Augustulus ; but the office or dominant authority of the Eoman 
Kingship, or Emperorship, was not then abolished, or did not 
then fall. On the contrary it continued to subsist with much 
vigor in the eastern division of the empire. 

"The dignity thus evidently not extinct by the deposition of 
Augustulus, continued in the eastern part of the empire, until 
Constantinople was taken by the Turks in the year A. D. 1453. 



THE WILD BEAST OF SEVEN HEADS. 17 

It was then abolished in the east, as it had before been suppressed 
in the west. But this event did not produce its ultimate fall. 

" If we revert to the west, we shall find that though it had 
been suppressed by Odoacer, throughout that division in the 
year A. D. 476, it was restored by the powerful sovereign of 
France, in the year A. D. 800, when Charlemagne, in the 
church of St. Peter, was solemnly proclaimed, the most pious 
Augustus, crowned by God, the great and pacific emperor of 
the Romans. In consequence of this transaction, the empire was 
now once more ruled by two Roman emperors . . . jointly as 
before, constituting that first head of the wild-beast which 
arose in the person of Romulus. 

"From the year 800 to the year 1453, with the exception of 
the interregnum which occurred when the western imperial 
dignity was transferred from France to Germany, the first 
head, continued to represent two dynasties." Sacred CaL vol. 
Hi. pp. 115-117. 

The steps by which Mr. Faber reached his conclu- 
sion in respect to the seventh head, and the Buona- 
partes, thus were, 1st. The hypothesis that the Ro- 
man rulers symbolized by the sixth head of the 
beast, were the Triumvirate, which, he held, fell in 
the year B. C. 27. 2d. The assumption that the 
head that followed the sixth, instead of the seventh, 
which was the next in order, was the first, the 
kingly; which he maintained, after having fallen in 
B. C. 508, rose again to a new life in the year B. C. 
27, and continued in supremacy, through near eigh- 
teen centuries, to A. D. 1806. 3d. The representa- 
tion that the line of supreme rulers, which he asserts 



IS ME. FABEn's THEORY OF 

the revived head represented, was first the imperial 
series from Augustus to Augustulus, who was de- 
throned in A. D. 476. Next the imperial line of the 
eastern empire, from the fall of Augustulus, to the 
coronation of Charlemagne in A. D. 800. Thirdly, 
that eastern line jointly with Charlemagne and his 
lineage, and subsequently the line of Otho of Ger- 
many, from A. D. 800, to the fall of the eastern em- 
pire in 1453. Fourthly, The line of Otho from 1453, 
to the abdication of the imperial title by Francis of 
Austria, in 1806. On the fall of that supposed sixth 
head, Mr. Faber held that the seventh head rose 
into power, and had its foreshadowed agent in Napo- 
leon Buonaparte. The defeat of that emperor at 
"Waterloo, in 1815, he alleged, was the event denoted 
by the deadly wounding of the seventh head ; and 
the healing of the wound, he maintained took place 
in the usurpation of the throne of France by Louis 
Napoleon in December, 1851, and reigning on it 
under the title of emperor. Every one of these 
hypotheses, and representations, I shall now show, is 
without authority, and in open contradiction to the 
Scriptures, and to the facts of history. 

1. Mr. Faber offers no proof that the Triumvirate 
was the order of Boman Bulers symbolized by the 
sixth head of the beast. This first and most funda- 
mental postulate in his theory, is left wholly without 
support. Not a solitary consideration does he 
allege that yields it any color of authority. The 



THE WILD BEAST OF SEVEN HEADS. 19 

mere fact that the Triumvirate was invested with a 
supreme and despotic rule for a short period, both 
before and after Caesar's death, is no proof that it was 
so diverse in nature from all the preceding forms of 
the government, as to entitle it to be represented 
exclusively of all others, by one of the heads. It 
manifestly had no such peculiarity; but was in prin- 
ciple, identical with the dictatorship, which it ex- 
actly resembled in the nature and absoluteness of its 
authority. The corner stone of Mr. Faber's theory 
thus rests upon a gratuitous assumption. 

2. His' representation that the Triumvirate was a 
wholly new, and the sixth form of the Roman gov- 
ernment, is in contradiction to the testimony of 
Tacitus, who treats the power of the Triumvirate, 
Pompey, Crassus and Caesar, and of Lepidus, An- 
tony and Octavius, as of too unsettled a character, 
and of too short a duration to be regarded as a fixed 
form of rule ; and exhibits the empire under Augus- 
tus, as that which succeeded to the military tribune- 
ship. " The power of Pompey and Crassus quickly 
passed to Caesar ; and the arms of Lepidus and An- 
tony, yielding to Augustus, he received the empire 
under the title of Prince" Annal. lib. i. cap. 1. 
Whatever settled rule prevailed during those trium- 
virates, was indisputably of the nature of the dicta- 
torship, and if referred to one of the heads of the 
beast as its representative, it should be to the third, 
the symbol of that power, which was first instituted 



20 me. faber's theory of 

in the year B. C. 497, and was several times revived, 
as in the person of Camillus, B. C. 389, of Sylla 
B. C. 82, and of Caesar B. C. 45. 

3. He disregards the distinction between the fall- 
ing of a head of the wild beast, and the interception 
of a head from its activity for a moment, by a death- 
wound. The falling of a head, which was its drooping 
and sinking from the erect attitude it maintained 
when in power, plainly denoted the loss of its vital 
energies and cessation from its functions, as the rul- 
ing head of the animal. The posture it took by 
falling, was that of lifelessness. There accordingly 
is no hint in the history of the wild beast in the 
Apocalypse, that either of the heads that had fallen, 
had risen to life and power again ; or that either of 
the two remaining heads would, or could, if they 
fell, be restored to a new life. The head that was 
healed, was a head, not that had fallen, but that 
had received a death-wound that for a moment 
stunned it, and intercepted its functions ; but that 
still, the symbol implies, was not actually dead, but 
in a condition in which it was susceptive of healing, 
and actually received a restoration to health and 
activity, and in a way that was suited to its nature. 
This consideration refutes Mr. Faber's imagination, 
that the head that was revived from a death-wound, 
was a head, not that had been merely wounded by 
a deadly blow, but a head that had actually died by 
a natural disease, or a stroke of violence. 



THE WILD BEAST OF SEVEN" HEADS. 21 

4. He gives no proof whatever that it was, as he 
affirms, the first head of the symbol, that was revived 
from a death- wound. There is not a hint in the 
prophecy that yields any support to that assumption. 
And Mr. Faber alleges nothing to sustain it. The 
pretexts by which he affects to justify it, that &?, 
one, in the expression, "the one is," is employed as the 
ordinal first, instead of the cardinal one, is wholly 
groundless and against, the general usage of the New 
Testament. The language of the passage is. 01 nevrs 
irtEGav, 6 eh eGtiv, 6 a \Ao$ ovnoo rfK,%E- in which 
61, the article prefixed to 7tevre, indubitably distin- 
guishes the five meant, as the first five in the series : 
not a five, or some Rye out of the heads, that had 
had a period of activity. The article also prefixed 
to ei$, "the one," distinguishes that head from all 
the others : as that also before aXAos, " the other," 
discriminates that from the other six. It is the first 
five in the series therefore, demonstrably, that had 
fallen, not merely five in number, without any indi- 
cation which they were; and in like manner, the 
6 ek, " the one " — i. e. y the one that now is — in su- 
premacy, is the sixth. Mr. Faber's attempt to con- 
vert the cardinal one, into the ordinal first, so as to 
make it affirm that " the first in the series, now is," 
instead of the one that now is, is not only without 
authority, but is a gross violation of the passage. 

5. The imperial office as held by Augustus and his 
successors, differed widely from that of the kings, in 



22 me. fabee's theory of 

its powers, prerogatives, and exemption from re- 
straint in the exercise of an arbitrary and despotic 
rule. The kings reigned over but a small population, 
and a narrow territory, and were held under power- 
ful restrictions by the fundamental laws of the state, 
and by a proud and jealous aristocracy. The great 
conquests by that people, of territories out of Italy, 
did not take place till ages after the line of kings 
had been supplanted by the consulate, and other 
forms of administration. But the emperors, instead 
of such petty chiefs, wielded a greater power for 
ages, than was ever exercised by any other line of 
monarchs; reigned over more numerous subjects, and 
a wider empire ; and held all within their domains, 
subject in the most absolute manner to their despotic 
will. A head of the beast, therefore, that was suited 
in its size and elevation to serve as a symbol of the 
kings, who were little better than the chiefs of a 
tribe of banditti, had no adaptation to represent the 
superior power, the greater magnificence, and the 
wider and more resistless and arbitrary sway of the 
emperors. To suppose, as Mr. Faber assumes, that the 
same head was employed as the symbol of officials 
that differed so widely in power, prerogatives, and 
splendor, is to suppose that the head had no special 
suitableness to the function which it was to fill, and 
is thence to contradict the wisdom of adaptation, 
that marks all the symbols of the Apocalypse, to 
the ends for which they were employed. 



THE WILD BEAST OF SEVEN HEADS. 23 

G. He holds that there were two heads of the beast 
that were revived from a death-stroke, and restored 
to power ; the first after a death of near five centu- 
ries ; and the seventh from a death-wound, which he 
affirmed it received at the battle of Waterloo. But 
in this he offers a direct contradiction to the prophe- 
cy, which gives no intimation that more than one 
was restored, after a death-stroke, to a new life and 
fresh activity. The whole representation implies, 
that that event was altogether unparalleled in the 
annals of the beast. "Why should they who dwell 
on the earth, wonder, when they behold the beast 
that was, and is not, and yet again is, if that seeming 
so]ecism is not in the predicted instance, a peculiarity 
to it ; if a like transition from death to life, had been 
repeatedly witnessed in the career of the rulers of 
the state? In thus interpolating a second revived 
head, of which the prophecy knows nothing, to give 
a color of truth to his theory, Mr. Faber shows 
again that he had no legitimate means for its 
support. 

The first two great postulates of his theory, that 
the Triumvirate was the order of rulers represented 
by the sixth head ; and that the first head, after a 
death of centuries, was revived to a new life, and 
reigned from the accession of Augustus, to the abdi- 
cation of the title of emperor of the Romans, by 
Francis of Austria in 1806, are thus wholly ground- 
less and false ; and with them, the whole fabric; 



24 me. fabee's theoey of 

reared by him with so much pretence and labor, falls 
to the ground. 

7. It is clear, therefore, that the head that symbol- 
ized the class of rulers who were exercising the 
government of the empire, at the time of the Vision, 
was not a head that had before fallen, and been re- 
called to a fresh life ; but was the sixth, in the order 
of the heads, which we know from the date of the 
revelation, was the imperial Pagan, in the person of 
Domitian. And this, moreover, is made indubitable 
by the expression employed by the Apostle to indi- 
cate the head that was then in power. His words, 
6 els efftivy "the one that now is," defines it as being 
then in power, and exercising the sway of the em- 
pire. As therefore the epoch of the revelation was 
the reign of Domitian, and the year A. D. 95 or 96 ; 
it is as specific a definition of the supreme power of 
the period as the Pagan imperial, as though it had 
been embodied in the most direct and explicit terms. 



THE WILD BEAST OF SEVEN HEADS. 25 



CHAPTER II. 

Mr. Faber is equally unsuccessful in his endeavor to prove that neither 
the Powers denoted by the Sixth, nor by the Seventh Head, held the 
Supreme Rule of the Empire during the Imperial Pagan and Christian 
Lines, from the Accession of Augustus to the Fall of the Western 
Empire. 

The powers that were in supremacy at the date of 
the vision, in which the Apostle beheld the wild 
beast, and witnessed its death-wound, and its restora- 
tion, were indubitably the line of Pagan emperors, 
of which Augustus was the first, and Galerius and 
Maximian, with the Csesars, appointed by them the 
last. When did that head fall ? "Was there, in fact, 
no fall of a head, as Mr. Faber contends, till the 
abdication of Francis of Austria, at a distance of 
more than eighteen hundred years? Or did the 
sixth fall, at the fall of the Pagan line of emperors, 
and give place to the seventh head, as the symbol of 
the Christian imperial line, commencing with Con- 
Btantine, and terminating at the abdication of Augus- 
tulus, and fall of the western empire ? Mr. Faber 
endeavored by the most fallacious pretexts, and bold 
misrepresentations, to make out that no head fell 
during that period. But his efforts were vain, and 
only served to show the unsoundness of the princi- 

2 



26 ME. FABER S THEORY OF 

pies on which he proceeded, and the unreliableness 
of his judgment. 

1. He totally overlooked the fact that the wild 
beast of seven heads and ten horns of the Apoca- 
lypse, ch. xiii. and xvii., was a prophetic symbol, or 
representative of thefuture only from the time when, 
the beast rose from the sea. The five first heads 
that had already fallen, most certainly were retro- 
spective merely, each of its own period of power 
which had already passed; not predictive of the 
rulers who were to exercise the supremacy during 
the remainder of that age and the ages that were to 
follow, till it should reach its final fall. This fact is 
sell-evident, and it shows that none of the first five 
that had fallen, could rise again to life, and resume 
the government of the empire. Their return to life 
and activity in their old sphere, as heads, during 
which they reigned, was as inconsistent with their 
having fallen, and lost their functions, as the return 
of the time during which they reigned, was incon- 
sistent with its having already passed ; and as a re- 
entrance on life of the identical subjects over whom 
they had exercised their authority, was inrpossible. 
It is in contradiction to the fact that they were fallen, 
and therefore merely representative of the past, not 
predictive of the future, to suppose that any one of 
them should recover itself from its fall, and resume 
its functions as a living, erect, and ruling head. But 
Mr. Faber unfortunately saw nothing of this. He 



THE WILD BEAST OF SEVEN HEADS. 27 

assumed that a fallen and defunct head, might as 
well fill the place of a living and acting one, as a 
head that had not fallen, but was in the full career 
and vigor of its official life. He was accordingly 
wholly unaware, or regardless, of the contradiction 
which he offered to the symbol, when he assumed and 
asserted that one of the fallen heads rose from its 
death-swoon, after a lapse of five hundred years, and 
assumed again the reins of the empire, which had 
for such a period fallen from its grasp. 

But it is equally true, that the sixth and seventh 
heads of that symbol, which had not fallen at the time 
of the vision, were not predictive of any agency of 
their own that was to be future, at the rise of the beast 
from the sea, but were merely representative, like 
the five fallen heads, of what when the beast should 
emerge from the deep, would already have come to 
pass. They most certainly could not be prophetic of 
any event that had taken place before the beast's 
emergence ; as it was at that epoch that it entered 
on its existence in the form it then bore. To sup- 
pose that those heads were symbols of powers and 
acts that were to take place after the rise of the 
beast from the sea, would be to suppose that they were 
not only prophetic of future agents and events, after 
the period of their agency had passed, but that they 
were symbols of a set of agents and acts that differed 
in time and nature from those which they had sym- 
bolized in their proper period before the beast re- 



28 mr. faber's theory of 

ceived the new form it took at that epoch, and 
assumed the place which the dragon had before held 
as the symbol of the Roman rulers from Romulus to 
the fall of the western empire. For why should 
events be again predicted as futurities, which had 
already been represented by the sixth and seventh 
heads of the dragon, and had had their verification 
in the fall of the sixth head at the overthrow of the 
Pagan line of emperors ; and the fall of the seventh 
at the dethronement of Augustulus? It is clear, 
therefore, that the predictive office of that symbol, 
was confined to the agents, acts, and events in the 
Roman empire, which had their being after the rise 
of the beast from the sea ; and this is an unanswer- 
able proof that the sixth and seventh heads did not 
have their period after the fall of the western empire, 
but before. For on the emergence of the beast from 
the sea, the diadems were no longer on the heads of 
the symbol, but on the horns. As those badges were 
the symbols of supreme power, the loss of them by 
the heads, showed that all the heads had run their 
career, and fallen from their authority; while the 
presence of the diadems on the horns, showed with 
equal explicitness, that the supreme power had 
passed to the kings, whom the horns represented. 
2^0 certainty can be more absolute, therefore, than 
that the fall of the sixth and seventh heads took 
place before the beast's emergence from the sea : not 
as Mr. Faber contends, at the distance of centuries 



THE WILD BEAST OF SEVEN HEADS. 29 

after the diademed horns entered on their career, as 
the sovereigns of the western Roman empire. And 
this single consideration again overturns the whole 
structure of the theory Mr. Faber has reared at such 
an expenditure of pompous assertions, and groundless 
pretences. 

2. There was no point entitled to a more thorough 
and impartial consideration by Mr. Faber, than the 
question whether the head representing the Pagan 
imperial line, did not fall, at the fall and extinction 
of that line on the death of Galerius, Maximian, 
Maxentius, Maximin, and Licinius, who were the 
last of the Pagan princes ; and who perished either 
shortly before, or during the struggle between the 
Pagan and Christian parties, in which Constantine 
rose to supreme power. But he takes no notice of it 
whatever. Why was it kept from the eyes of his 
readers ? Was it because he saw that a candid exhi- 
bition of that great revolution, would be likely to 
lead them to distrust the validity of the theory 
he was so strenuous to maintain ? The fact that the 
Pagan line of emperors was swept from the throne, 
at that epoch ; and that it was succeeded by a nomi- 
nally Christian line, which continued down to the 
fall of the western empire, is indisputable. It is 
indisputable, also, that that change was an event of 
the greatest significance in the political as well as 
the religious world. As that class of rulers, marked 
by such peculiarities, was struck from existence, and 



30 me. fabeb's theoey op 

a new line, in many respects of a wholly dissimilar 
character, and opposite policy, especially in the 
sphere of religion, rose in its place ; what is so prob- 
able as that the sixth head of the beast, which had 
been the symbol of the Pagan emperors, should also 
fall from its place, and be succeeded by the seventh 
head, as the symbol of the new dynasty ? £To modi- 
fication of the government in the preceding stages 
of its career, approached in greatness and momen- 
tousness, that which was wrought by Constantine. 
In all the previous variations of the supreme rule, 
the changes lay chiefly in the classes of persons who 
exercised the government. The great principles of 
the ruling power, and the most important features of 
its policy, were in all the six forms the government 
had assumed, essentially the same. But on the ac- 
cession of Constantine to the throne, a new and all- 
pervading element was introduced, by the recogni- 
tion and legalization of Christianity, the nationaliza- 
tion of the Church, and the assumption by the monarch, 
of authority over the faith, the worship, and the 
rights of God's people, that in a degree reversed the 
fundamental principles and aims of the government, 
and gave birth to a train of events, that had no 
parallel in greatness and significance, in the previous 
history of the empire. What can be more contradic- 
tious and preposterous, than to suppose that two such 
diverse, and in their leading principles and aims, 
directly opposite lines of princes, should or could be 



THE WILD BEAST OF SEVEN HEADS. 31 

symbolized by the same bead, and that a Pagan 
head of the beast? It is to suppose that the re- 
presentative bears no analogy to that which it de- 
notes, but is wholly arbitrary and meaningless. Mr. 
Faber, however, saw nothing, it would seem, of this. 
To his eyes the head that represented the Pagan 
kings, Euma, Tarquin, and the other chiefs of the 
first ages of the Roman state, or that stood for Nero, 
Diocletian, and Galerius, was as well adapted to be 
the symbol of Constantine, Gratian and Theodosius, 
as it was of those ancient worshipers of false gods, 
or those later persecutors of the children of the 
Almighty, and conspirators against the spread and 
existence of his kingdom on the earth. 

3. He in like manner passed the question whether 
the seventh head of the beast did not rise into power 
at the fall of the Pagan line of supreme rulers, and 
become the symbol of the new nominally Christian 
line, which commenced with Constantine, and con- 
tinued until the fall of the western empire, and tran- 
sition of the supreme power from the last head of the 
beast to its horns. Yet there was no question 
entitled in a higher measure to his most impartial 
consideration. That the imperial line of Christian 
emperors, commencing with Constantine, was the 
line symbolized by the seventh head, is indeed not 
only thus probable, but is indubitably certain, from 
the fact, that that line received a deadly wound from, 
the sword, and yet after a brief space, was revived 



32 mr. faber's theory of 

again, and continued down to the fall of Augustulus, 
and overthrow of the western empire. The title to 
the throne passed, according to the laws of the 
empire, from Constantine to his descendants or rela- 
tives. But that prince himself, before he was sum- 
moned from life, put to death his oldest son, and 
several other members of his own and his father's 
family. After his decease, two of his brothers, two 
sons of one of his brothers, the husband of one of his 
sisters, and five other relatives, were put to death by 
Constantius, his oldest surviving son. Of Constan- 
tino's other sons that outlived him, Constantine was 
slain in battle in the year 340 ; and Constans was 
assassinated in 350. Soon after, Nepotianus, a cousin 
of Constantine, and Grallus, a brother of Julian, were 
put to death. Consequently, on the decease, in 361, 
of Constantine's remaining son Constantius, Julian, 
the Apostate, was the only surviving male of the 
family, who had a title to the sceptre. He accord- 
ingly, having already been made Csesar, and being 
declared Augustus by the army of the west, of which 
he had the command, succeeded to the throne with- 
out obstruction ; and publicly renouncing Christi- 
anity, and adopting Paganism as his religion, put an 
end for a time to the reign of the line denoted by the 
seventh head ; though he failed to revive and rein- 
state the sixth. The line denoted by the seventh head 
thus received a deadly wound by a sword. After the 
lapse, however, of eighteen months, Julian fell in a 



THE WILD BEAST OF SEVEN HEADS. 33 

battle with the Persians ; and with him, Paganism, 
losing the power it had regained ; on the election by 
the army of Jovian, a Christian chief, to the imperial 
throne, the line of Christian princes symbolized by 
the wounded and restored head, again obtained the 
sceptre, and held it till the fall of Augustnlus, and 
the extinction of the western empire. As these 
events thus present an exact correspondence to the 
symbol, they are unquestionably its fulfillment. And 
this is confirmed by the fact, that no other death- 
wound was ever given to the seventh head of the 
beast from which it recovered. If another such 
death-wound was inflicted on it, its period must have 
been between the assumption of the throne of the 
empire by Constantine, when the seventh head suc- 
ceeded to the sixth, and the fall of Augustulus, when 
it fell and passed from its sphere as an active power 
in the western empire. But there is not another 
group of events in the annals of the emperors of, that 
period, that has the slightest title to be regarded as 
the fulfillment of the prediction. 

4. Though Mr. Faber asserts, with great confi- 
dence, that no fall of a head of the beast took place 
at the fall of Augustulus and extinction of the western 
empire, he presents no considerations that yield any 
support to his representation, but contents himself 
with alleging that though the imperial line of the 
western empire then came to its end, the extinction 
of that line involved no fall of a head of the beast; 

2* 



34: mk. faeer's theory op 

because another imperial line still subsisted in the 
east. He says : 

" The western line of the Roman emperors did indeed expire 
with Augustulus ; but the office or dominant authority of the 
Eoman kingship, or emperorship, which is the thing typified by 
the head existing in the time of St. John, was not then 
abolished ; or in the phraseology of the Apocalypse, did not 
then fall. On the contrary, it still continued to subsist with 
much vigor in the eastern division of the empire, represented by 
the leonine, ursine and leopardine parts of the symbol. 

" So far was the Eoman emperorship from falling by the 
abdication of Augustulus, that no other change was produced in 
the constitution of the regal head, except this : instead of two 
emperors, eastern and western, who had governed the divided 
empire since the death of Theodosius, the world again beheld, 
though with diminished territory, a sole emperor of the 
Eomans." — Sac. Cal., vol. Hi., pp. 116, 117. 

In this pretext he tacitly assumes, that on the 
abdication of Augustulus, the emperor of the eastern 
empire became, by virtue of that act, the emperor of 
the west, with all the rights, prerogatives and honors 
that had belonged to Augustulus. Otherwise he 
could not be the emperor of the west : and therefore 
could not be symbolized as such by the head of the 
beast that had been the representative of Augustulus. 
How could Zeno of Constantinople, be the imperial 
monarch of the western empire, if he had none of the 
rights, none of the titles and dignities, none of the 
prerogatives, none of the power and dominion that 
belonged to the imperial office, while held by the 



THE WILD BEAST OF SEVEN HEADS. 35 

fallen monarch of Rome ? How could Zeno be repre- 
sented by the same head of the beast as had been the 
symbol of Augustulus, if he had none of the preroga- 
tives, and exercised none of the functions, which it 
was the office of that head to symbolize ? But what 
can be more mistaken and absurd than to imagine that 
the abdication of Augustulus wrought such a stupen- 
dous change in the relations of Zeno, as to invest him 
with all the rights and possessions which the fallen 
monarch of the west had just laid down ? Augustu- 
lus, by his abdication, transferred his rights and pre- 
rogatives exclusively to Odoacer, to whom he yielded 
his office, and of whom he became a subject ; not to 
Zeno, with whom he had no communication, and who 
had no personal interest in the transaction. The pre- 
tence, therefore, that no fall of a head of the beast 
that had been the symbol of Augustulus, took place 
when that emperor fell, because another emperor still 
retained his throne in the eastern empire, though he 
had no dominion and exercised no functions in the 
west, is wholly solecistical and false. Consequently 
the continuance of the eastern imperial line, after the 
dissolution of the western empire, is no proof that 
there was not a fall of a head and of the seventh 
head of the wild beast, at the fall of Augustulus ; and 
Mr. Faber fails in his attempt to prove that no such 
fall then took place. 

But beyond this, the fall of Augustulus, and extinc- 
tion of his empire, was itself a direct and indubitable 



36 me. fabee's theory of 

proof, that the head of the beast that had been his 
representative, also fell with him. For the fall of the 
western imperial line is as direct and positive a proof 
of the fall of the symbol that had represented it, as 
the fall of the symbol is of the fall of the line of which 
it had been the representative. To suppose it other- 
wise, is to suppose that no fixed and infallible con- 
nection exists between the symbol, and that which it 
symbolizes. If an imperial dynasty that has been 
symbolized by the seventh head of the wild beast 
may fall and sink into extinction ; and yet no change 
takes place in the symbol that answers to that fall ; 
then manifestly no correspondence in acts and events 
subsists between them ; and the conditions and catas- 
trophes of the symbol are no index to the conditions 
and catastrophes of the line it represents; nor the 
condition of the line it represents, any key to the con- 
dition of the symbol. But instead of this, the fall of 
the line of monarchs denoted by the seventh head, is 
as infallible a sign that that head fell also at the same 
moment, as the fall of a head when beheld by John 
in the vision, was to him, that the line of rulers it 
denoted, was to fall at the moment which was to 
answer in the fulfillment to that act of the symbol. 
And this Mr. Faber himself in effect admits. For 
the dates to which he refers the fall of the first, 
second, third, fourth, and fifth heads of the beast, are 
the dates of the fall of the orders of rulers, which 
those heads severa y represented. He in all cases 



THE WILD BEAST OF SEVEN HEADS. 37 

takes the discontinuance of a line of rulers, as a proof 
of the fall, at the same moment, of the head that had 
symbolized it ; and the entrance of a new order of 
rulers on their functions, as a proof that its date was 
the date of the rise of the new head which was the 
representative of that line." By Mr. Faber's own 
mode, therefore, of determining the fact and the time 
of the rise and fall of the heads of the wild beast, the 
fall of Augustulus was a full and infallible proof 
that the head that had been his symbol, fell also at 
the same moment with himself. 

And that the head that then fell was the seventh, 
I have already shown, first by the fact, that six orders 
of rulers had run their career before it rose into 
power; next, that the class that immediately pre- 
ceded it, was the Pagan imperial ; thirdly, that it was 
itself the Christian imperial, and entitled, from its 
peculiarity, and the vastness and momentousness of 
its acts, and its influence on the world for ages., to be 
represented by a separate head ; and finally, by the 
distinctive and indubitable mark that it had received 
a death-wound by a sword, from which it was revived, 
and reinstated in its power ; and next by the equally 
infallible token, that it must have fallen when the 
imperial line of the west fell, and the diadems were 
transferred from the heads of the beast to its horns, 
inasmuch as it had no function after that time ; and 
that was the time when Augustulus abdicated his 
flirono. It was the time also when the beast with the 



38 mr. faber's theory of 

ten diademed horns rose from the sea ; and also was 
the time of the extinction of the western empire. 
The confutation of Mr. Faber's theory, that no head 
of the beast fell at the fall of Augustulus and of his 
empire, is thus as absolute, as it is in the power of 
language to express. 



THE WILD BEAST OF SEVEN HEADS. 39 



CHAPTEE III. 

Mr. Faber fails equally, in his Theory, that there was a Line of Emperors 
in the Western Empire, from Augustulus to Napoleon Buonaparte and 
Louis Napoleon, that was represented by a Head of the Wild Beast. 

1. He first assigns that office to the imperial line 
of Constantinople, affirming in the passage I have 
already cited, that on the fall of Augustulus, the 
western empire still had an imperial head, in the line 
of monarchs on the throne of the eastern empire ; and 
that that line was symbolized by a head of the beast. 
But the supposition is wholly without ground, and 
solecistical. It is clear, first, that Zeno, the emperor 
of the east, and his successors on the Constantino- 
politan throne, could not be symbolized by a head of 
the wild beast as the emperors of the western empire, 
unless they were truly such. To suppose them repre- 
sented by a head, as emperors of the west, when they 
were not such, would be to suppose the symbol to be 
a misrepresentation and contravention of the truth. 
It is equally clear that those princes could not be 
emperors of the western empire, unless that empire 
was still in existence. That their office might be a 
reality, the empire of* which they were the masters, 
must also be a reality. Otherwise, the office and title 



40 MR. faber's theory of 

would be but empty shadows. But that indispen- 
sable requisite to their holding imperial power over 
the western empire did not exist. That empire 
was no longer in being. Its territory had passed 
from the jurisdiction of the powers symbolized by the 
heads of the wild beast ; and its population had 
ceased to stand in the relation to it of subjects. 
Those princes, therefore, could not by any possibility 
hold the place of genuine and authoritative sovereigns 
to that population. A symbolization of them as 
emperors of such a nonexisting empire, would have 
been a mockery, and cannot have taken place. 

Next. — iSTor had they any title or right by which 
they could legitimately claim jurisdiction over that 
territory, or the nations that occupied it. The em- 
perors of the east had no title by virtue of their office 
as emperors of their own imperium, to jurisdiction 
over the western empire. Their right to reign, was 
simply a right to reign over the domains that were 
exclusively theirs. Nor did a right arise to them to 
claim and assume the jurisdiction of the west, from 
the fact that the imperial line of the west had lost its 
rights and power, and passed out of existence as 
rulers. ~No compact existed between the two lines, 
by which on the failure of one of them, the jurisdic- 
tion of that which was left vacant, should pass as an 
inheritance to the other line. ISTo pretext is made 
by Mr. Faber that the eastern emperor became heir 
of the western, on the fall of Augustulus, by virtue 



THE WILD BEAST OF SEVEN HEADS. 41 

of a treaty between the two parties, or because of a 
condition to that eifect inserted in the decree by 
which the two divisions of the empire were separated 
from each other, and constituted two distinct and 
independent sovereignties. 

Thirdly. — The eastern emperors did not acquire a 
title to the jurisdiction of the west, by any act of 
Augustulus. That prince surrendered his empire 
and throne to the king of the Heruli ; not to Zeno, 
of Constantinople. 

Fourthly. — Neither Zeno nor his immediate suc- 
cessors resorted to any measures to possess themselves 
of the western empire by force, on the ground that 
they inherited a title to it from Augustulus or his 
predecessors. No attempt was made by any of the 
eastern emperors to reduce the western empire, or 
any part of it, to submission to their power, till the 
reign of Justinian, and fifty-seven years after the fall 
of Augustulus ; and no absolute conquest was made 
by him, except in Africa and Sicily, till near twenty 
years later ; while the title to the territory which he 
acquired in those wars, was the title exclusively of 
conquest, not of hereditary right. 

As then it is thus apparent that the eastern 
emperors had no title whatever to the throne of the 
west when vacated by Augustulus, it is indubitably 
certain that Zeno and his successors cannot have 
been emperors in any sense of the west ; and equally 
certain, therefore, that they cannot have been sym- 



42 me. faber's theory of 

bolized as such by a head of the beast. The suppo- 
sition is self-contradictious. How could a head of 
the beast have symbolized them as emperors of the 
west, when they in fact were not such in any respect, 
either truly or nominally ; when they had no title to 
the sovereignty of the west ; when they made no 
claim to jurisdiction over it ; and when they exer- 
cised none of the functions that belonged to its 
sovereignty ? It plainly would have been a false 
symbolization, and therefore cannot have been made 
in the visions of the Apocalypse. The supposition 
of such a rej>resentation is the greatest of solecisms. 
A head of the beast could no more represent a line 
of monarchs, when no line of monarchs existed, or 
was to exist, that answered to the head as a 
symbol, than it could be the symbol of any other 
nonentity. 

Thus Mr. Faber blundered at every step of his 
attempt to show that the imperial line of the east 
was at the same time the imperial line of the west. 
He overlooked the fact, that there was no longer a 
western Roman empire. He disregarded the fact, 
that the emperors of the east had no jurisdiction or 
title to sovereignty over the west. He left out of 
sight the fact, that a head of the beast which was 
exclusively a symbol of the western line of emperors, 
could not possibly be a symbol of the eastern line in 
the same, or in any other relation. His whole 
imagination that the emperors of the east were also 






THE WILD BEAST OF SEVEN IIEADS. 43 

emperors of the west, is thus a consummate miscon- 
ception, a sheer monstrosity. They were no more 
emperors of the western Roman empire, at the fall 
of Augustulus, and through the ages that followed, 
than they were of. Southern Africa, Hindostan, 
Thibet, or China. 

Did the seventh head of the wild beast then, fill no 
office as a symbol of the supreme rulers of the eastern 
empire ? None whatever ; the answer indubitably 
is. That head was the symbol simply of the last im- 
perial line of the western empire ; and on the fall of 
that line, its functions as a symbol terminated. It 
most certainly could not have been the symbol in any 
sphere of the imperial line of the east, after the divis- 
ion of the old empire into distinct and independent 
sovereignties. Because, first, it is a solecism to sup- 
pose a head of the beast could have symbolized a line 
of emperors as having jurisdiction over the west, when 
no line existed that had any sovereignty over it ;' and 
next, because the eastern line, at the division of the 
domains into two separate realms, of necessity, in ac- 
ceding to that act, abdicated all its former right and 
title to a jurisdiction over the west: while by the 
same necessity, the line of the western empire, in as- 
senting to that division of the old domains, abdicated 
all its former right and title to jurisdiction over the 
east. Such a renunciation of claims over each other, 
and limitation of the authority of each to its own 
special domains, was an essential element in the great 



4A mr. faber's theory of 

act by which the two divisions were constituted sepa- 
rate and independent sovereignties. 

31r. Faber thus wholly fails in his attempt to prove 
that a line of imperial princes was perpetuated in the 
western empire for ages after the fall of Augustulus, 
by the imperial line that continued to reign for near 
a thousand years at Constantinople. 

2. His representation that Charlemagne was con- 
stituted emperor of the western Roman empire in the 
year A.D. 800, by the act of Leo, is equally mistaken 
and contradictory to fact. 

He offers indeed no direct proof that that prince 
was invested with that office. He simply alleges the 
fact that a crown was placed on Charlemagne's head 
by Leo, and that he was saluted by the people as 
emperor of the Romans. He offers nothing to show 
that the crowning was legal and authoritative, nor 
that Charlemagne was constituted, or declared em- 
peror of the western Roman empire / inasmuch as the 
crowning, and proclamation were of a wholly differ- 
ent character. In order that Charlemagne might be 
constituted emperor of the western Roman empire, it 
was necessary either that he should have inherited 
the title and prerogatives of that office, from a pre- 
decessor, who had a right to transmit them to him ; 
or else that the pope who placed the crown on his 
brow, and proclaimed him emperor, should have au- 
thority by virtue of his priestly office, to confer on 
him the crown of the western empire, and to give 



THE WILD BEAST OF SEVEN HEADS. 45 

with it all its titles and dignities. If the investiture 
was legitimate, the right or act that conferred it, must 
also have been legitimate and legal. But Charle- 
magne did not derive a title to the name and preroga- 
tives of emperor, from an ancestor, nor from a pre- 
decessor. He had no imperial ancestor on the throne 
of France. He had no imperial predecessor on that 
throne nor in Italy. He obtained the dominion of 
Italy by conquest, in place of receiving it as a bequest 
from the Lombard king whom he vanquished. It is 
equally certain that he was not constituted emperor 
of the western Roman empire by the act of pope Leo, 
in crowning him, and denominating him emperor. 
First because the pope had no control of the imperial 
crown, and authority to confer it on Charlemagne, or 
any other individual. To suppose that he had, would 
be to suppose that the claim set up by his succes- 
sors to an absolute supremacy over all civil princes, 
and right to invest them with regal dominion, or 
divest them of it at their pleasure, was legitimate. 
But Leo had no such power. His act was accordingly 
as illegitimate as to the conveyance of rights and pre- 
rogatives, as a crowning and salutation as emperor by 
any other individual could have been. 

Next because the act of Leo was wholly gratuitous, 
and unauthorized by Charlemagne himself. That 
prince so far from having dictated or sanctioned the 
measure, was taken by it with surprise, and regarded 
the ofnciousness and audacity of the pope with dis- 



4:6 me. faeee's theoey of 

pleasure. At least such is the view given of the 
transaction by Dean Milman. 

" The Christmas of the last year of the eighth century arrived. 
Charles and all his sumptuous court, the nobles and people oi 
Borne, and the whole clergy, were present at the high service 
of the nativity. The Pope himself chanted the mass. The full 
assembly were wrapt in profound devotion. At the close, the 
Pope arose, advanced towards Charles, with a splendid crown 
in his hands, placed it on his brow, and proclaimed him * Au 
gustus.' Charles and his son Pepin humbly submitted to the 
ratification of this important act, as anointed by the Pope. 

" "Was this a sudden and unconcerted act of gratitude, a mag- 
nificent adulation by the Pope, to the unconscious and hardly 
consenting emperor ? What rights did it convey ? In what, 
according to the estimate of the times, consisted the imperial 
supremacy ? To these questions history returns but vague and 
doubtful answers." — Latin Christ, vol. ii., American Edition, 
p. 458-459. 

Dean Milman, in proof that the crowning was un- 
premeditated by Charles, and the mere work of the 
pope, cites a passage from a writer of the age, who 
relates that " Charlemagne declared that holy as was 
the day, the Lord's nativity, if he had Tcnown the in- 
tention of the pope, he would not have entered the 
church." Sigonius admits that such statements were 
made by writers, but dissents from them, and repre- 
sents the coronation as welcome to Charles. It can 
scarcely be believed, however, that he can have been 
ambitious of receiving the imperial title and diadem 
from a pope of Leo's tarnished reputation : For he 



THE WILD BEAST OF SEVEN HEADS. 47 

had been publicly accused of the most infamous 
crimes ; arid the king had gone to Italy for the ex- 
press purpose of arraigning and judging him ; and it 
was only by an artifice of the clergy that Leo escaped 
a trial in which he would at least have been discredit- 
ed by the most ignominious imputations. For on the 
arraignment of the parties before the tribunal, the 
bishops who were assessors with the king, rose and 
disclaimed the right to sit in judgment on the pope, 
on the pretext, that as he was the supreme pontiff, 
and held absolute jurisdiction over all others, he was 
necessarily exempt from judgment by others, -and 
the sole arbiter of his own cause. And on that 
representation, the bare protestation by the pope of 
his innocence was accepted as a sufficient proof that 
the charges against him were false.* 

But the act of the pope was illegal and invalid, 
even if the king had anticipated and acquiesced in it. 
For whence had Leo the power to constitute Charles 
emperor of the Romans? Not by virtue of his pon- 
tificate. To suppose that he had power to confer 
that office, is to suppose that he had equal power to 
take it away, and thence that the emperor in place 
of an independent prince, became by his inaugura- 
tion his mere vassal. If Charles himself had the 
power to constitute himself emperor, he could not 
have invested the pope with authority to make him 
such, for that would have involved an equal power 

*Sigomus De Regno Ital. an. 801, pp. 157, 159. 



48 mk. fabee's theory of 

in the pope at his will to divest him of his title and 
crown ; and would have weakened his prerogatives 
and tarnished his dignity instead of augmenting 
them. The coronation was accordingly in fact a dis- 
honor to Charles, for instead of a magnificent gift, it 
implied that he had not become emperor by virtue 
of his ancestry, nor by his conquests ; but owed the 
title and dignity to the generosity or subservience of 
the pope. Iso legitimate heir or claimant of an im- 
perial empire and throne, would consent to such an 
illegal and unauthoritative inauguration, instead of 
an investiture by legitimate officials, and the usual 
and impressive forms of such a ceremony, that is to 
affect in the most intimate manner the rights both of 
rulers and of subjects. It is to trine to exhibit such 
a sham investiture, as having the force of a legal and 
authoritative transaction, that carried with it the re- 
suscitation of an empire that had passed from exist- 
ence, and the gift of the rights, powers and digni- 
ties of an imperial rule over it. But thirdly, the in- 
vestiture of Charlemagne by the pope, illegitimate 
and empty of power as it was, was not an investiture 
with the title of emperor of the western Roman em- 
pire / but simply of the Roman population of the 
capitol and the neighboring territory that had been 
conquered by Charlemagne from the Lombards. 
The language of Anastatius, whose account of the 
transaction is quoted by Baronius and Pagi, is as 
follows : — 



THE WILD BEAST OF SEVEN EEADS. 49 

" Then the pontifex with his own hands, crowned him with a 
costly crown ; and the faithful Bomans, seeing the great favor 
which he cherished toward the church and the Pope, unani- 
mously with aloud voice exclaimed, ' Life and victory to Charles, 
the most pious Augustus, crowned by God great and pacific 
emperor.'* He was then thrice saluted by the crowd, and pro- 
claimed Emperor of the Romans." 

The title given him, thus was not emperor of the 
western Roman empire ; but simply emperor of the 
Romans ; that is, of the population of Rome itself 
and the neighboring territory which he had conquer- 
ed from the Lombards. It was a mere appropriation 
to him, therefore, of a new title ; not a conveyance 
to him of any new prerogative, or authority, either 
over the western empire at large, or over Italy, France, 
Germany, or any other territory which he had in- 
herited or conquered. The account given of the 
transaction by the Annalista Lambecianus, cited by 
Pagi, is the same. Sigonius also exhibits the act as 
originating with Leo, and as involving nothing more 
than the appropriation to Charlemagne of the im- 
perial title. The aim of Leo in the measure, he re- 
presents was, to place that prince in an attitude 
toward the papacy and the Catholic church, that 

*Exclamaverunt ; Carolo, piissimo Augusto, a Deo coronato magno 
pacifico imperatori, Vita, ct Victoria ! Ante sacram confessioncm 
beati Petri, ter dictum est ; et constitutus est, imperator Romanorura. 
Annales a. 800. 

3 



50 MR. faber's theory of 

would prompt him to act a more effective part as its 
patron and protector.* 

This is confirmed also by Pagi, who repels the 
representation by Baronius, that the imperial power 
was transferred by the act of Leo, from the Greeks 
to the Franks. Thus he says : — 

"Baronius wrote inaccurately when lie affirmed that the 
imperium was transferred by Leo to Charles. Bellarmine falls 
into the same error in saying that the western empire was 
transferred from the Greeks to the Franks. The term, l trans- 
ference' does not justly express the transaction. For Irene, the 
empress of the east, neither relinquished nor lost any of her 
rights. Besides, the western imperium was extinct, and could 
not therefore be transferred to any other prince, but could 
only be renewed ; which was exactly what Leo did, as is seen 
from the coin issued by Charles, which bore the inscription, 
1 Eenovation of the Empire.'t 

In accordance with this, Sigonius represents the imperial title, 
which had failed more than three hundred years before, as sim- 
ply renewed, or brought again into use by the act of Leo." J 

These testimonies thus effectually set aside Mr. 
Faber's pretext that Charlemagne was constituted 

*Ut catholicum eundem, ac potentissimum regem, firmum simul, ac 
fidum Christianis atque ipsi Romanae Ecclesiae, tutorem et patronem 
pararet. De Regno. It. a 800, p. 158. 

•fVox enim, translatione, rem gestam non bene explicat. Preterea 
Imperium occidentale extinctum erat, idioque in aliquem principem, 
transferrinonpoterat, sed tantum renovari, quod et reapse praestitit Leo. 

^Sigonius inquit ; nunc dignitatis imperitoriae titulum cum in Momyllo 
Augustulo, ultimo occidentalis Imperatore, ante trecentoa annos, sub 
regnum Gothorum in Italia defecisset, in eodem occidente Pontifex 
renovavit. De Regno Italiae A.D. 801. 



THE WILD BEAST OF SEVEN HEADS. 51 

the emperor of the western Roman empire as Hono- 
rius, Valentinian III., and others were down to Au- 
gustulus. He received nothing but the mere name 
of emperor of the Romans, and that was conferred in 
an illegal and unauthoritative way. There was no 
reconstruction of the western Roman empire. There 
was no change of dominion or authority. All the 
territory, population and rulers of the Gothic king- 
doms that were not embraced in what Charles in- 
herited from his father, or had conquered by his 
sword in Italy, Germany, or elsewhere, remained as 
independent of him after his coronation as it was 
before. 

3. Mr. Faber fails in like manner to present any 
proof of his representation that Otho, king of Ger- 
many, was constituted the imperial head of the west- 
ern Roman empire by being crowned by the pope in 
A.D. 962, and simply saluted as emperor, by the 
clergy and people of Rome. 

It was simply as the monarch of his own inherited 
or acquired dominions in Germany, and conquests in 
Italy, that he was declared emperor. That is the 
specific representation of Sigonius, Baronius, Pagi, 
and Gibbon. Not a syllable is uttered by them im- 
plying that he was inaugurated as the imperial head 
of the western empire. Such a pretext is a gross 
affront to truth. Did Otho ever attempt to assert a 
title to that empire ? Did he ever claim in virtue of 
his inauguration at Rome to be the emperor of France, 



52 me. fabee's theoey of 

Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, Northern Africa, or 
Sicily ? There was no one from whom he could in- 
herit such a title. There was no one who could give 
him the rights and powers of such a headship of the 
empire. Otho himself, notwithstanding the title he 
received, was nothing more than one of the kings 
descended from the Gothic tribes, who conquered the 
western empire from the Romans, and transmitted it 
to their posterity. He had no more imperial authori- 
ty over the kingdoms of the monarchs who were 
contemporary with him in the other parts of the west- 
ern empire, than those monarchs had over him and 
his domains. 

4. Mr. Faber is equally unsuccessful in his attempt 
to prove that Napoleon Buonaparte was the emperor 
of the western Roman empire, and as such was 
the personage symbolized by the seventh head of 
the beast. It certainly behooved him, in order to 
give any color of truth to his theory, to sustain this 
step in it by the most indubitable proofs. Not the 
shadow of evidence, however, does he allege to verify 
it. He utters nothing to sustain it but a tissue of 
statements and assertions that have not the remotest 
bearing on the point he affects to establish by them. 

" "We shall find," he says, " that in every particular 
the Francic emperorship minutely answers to the 
prophetic character of the seventh head. In May, 
1804, Napoleon Buonaparte assumed the official title 
of emperor of the French." — Yol. iii., p. 124. But 



THE WILD BEAST OF SEVEN HEADS. 53 

that is not the title which Honorius, Valentinian iii. 
and others down to Augustulus bore : nor is it any 
more equivalent to the title, emperor of the western 
Roman empire, than the title emperor of Morocco, 
Brazil, or Mexico is. What can transcend the error 
of thus assuming that being emperor of one of the 
Gothic kingdoms, is identical with being invested 
with supreme authority over them all ? "Was Buona- 
parte emperor of Great Britain ? "Was he emperor of 
Spain, of which Joseph Buonaparte was king ? "Was 
he emperor of Sicily, of which Murat was monarch ? 
"Was he emperor of Westphalia, the throne of which 
Jerome occupied ? Or of Holland, of which Lucien 
held the sceptre ? They were indeed dependents and 
subservients ; but they did not belong to the empire 
of France, and he was not their emperor, any more 
than he was emperor of Thibet or Kamskatka. 

Mr. Faber proceeds. " In March, 1805, he became 
king of Italy." But that was not to become the 
imperial head of the old western empire. Did Mr. 
Faber hold that in becoming king of Italy, he became 
the monarch of all the other western kingdoms, which 
were once subject to the imperial line at Rome ? Or 
if he held that preposterous notion, how did Buona- 
parte's assuming the title of King of Rome, prove that 
in his wholly different office as emperor of France, 
he was the personage symbolized by the seventh head 
of the wild beast ? Can any conclusion be at a greater 
distance from the premise from which it is drawn ? 



54 me. fabek's theory of 

He adds : " In August, 1806, the first Eoman head 
fell by the abdication and abolition of the official 
title of emperor of the Romans." But the emperor 
of Austria, who renounced that title, derived by 
him from Otho, was not the emperor of the western 
Roman empire, any more than Otho himself was ; 
and could not, and did not, in fact abdicate it. The 
imperial title which he renounced was simply the title 
"Emperor of the Romans" and indicated merely 
that he was the emperor of his own special empire. 
The reason, moreover, which he gave for his abdica- 
tion was, not that he had been deprived of his do- 
minions in Italy, but that a share of his territories 
in Germany had been wrested from him by the Con- 
federation of the Rhine. His language is : 

"Being convinced of the impossibility of discharging any 
longer the duties which the imperial throne imposed upon us, 
we owe it to our principles to abdicate a crown, which could 
have no value in our eyes, when we were unable to discharge 
its duties, and deserve the confidence of the Princes, electors 
of the empire. Therefore it is, that considering the bonds 
which unite us to the empire as dissolved by the Confederation 
of the Ehine, we renounce the imperial crown, and by these 
presents, absolve the Electors, Princes and States, members of 
the supreme tribunal, and other magistrates, from the duties 
which unite them to us as their legal chief." — Alisotfs Hist. 
Vol V. p. 690. 

The office which he resigned thus, was not that of 
emperor of the western Roman empire, of which he 
neither possessed the jurisdiction, nor held the title ; 



THE WILD BEAST OF SEVEN HEADS. 55 

but was simply his office as the imperial head of the do- 
minions he had held in Germany, where the electors, 
princes, and states, he absolved from their allegiance, 
had their place. What can transcend the truthless- 
ness and folly of the pretence, that the surrendry of 
that imperial title, was the abdication of the title and 
office of emperor of the western Roman empire, held 
by Honorius, Valentinian III, and Angustulus ? 

But how, even on Mr. Faber's theory, did the abdi- 
cation of Francis of Austria, carry to Napoleon Buo- 
naparte a title to the emperorship of the western 
Roman empire ? Did the emperor of Austria formally 
transfer it to him ? Not at all. Did he resign it that 
it might be assumed by Napoleon ? No. Did his 
relinquishing the title, naturally and necessarily in- 
vest Napoleon with the right of assuming it ? Not in 
the least. Did Buonaparte in fact ever assume the 
title ? Never, nor ever uttered a whisper, implying 
that he thought himself entitled to arrogate it. . How 
then could the abdication by Francis of the imperial 
throne of Germany, prove that Buonaparte was the 
emperor of the western Roman empire ? And how 
beyond that, could it prove that Buonaparte was the 
person that was symbolized by the seventh head of 
the wild beast of the Apocalypse ? 

He proceeds : " In February, 1810, it was decreed 
that the papal states should be united to the French 
empire ; that of that empire, Rome should rank as 
the second city ; that the prince imperial should take 



56 me. faber's THEORY OS 

the title of King of Rome ; and that the emperors 
after having been crowned in Notre Dame, at Paris, 
should before the tenth year of their reign, be also 
crowned in that of St. Peter's at Rome." — -Vol. iii. 
p. 124. But how did that decree that the Papal 
states should be united to France, prove that Napo- 
leon was the imperial head of the western Poman 
empire ? Or, how did it demonstrate that he was the 
person symbolized by the seventh head of the beast? 
Or how does the decree that Pome should be the 
second city in rank in the empire, and that the impe- 
rial prince should bear the title of the King of Pome, 
prove that Napoleon was the personage represented 
by the seventh head of the wild beast ? What can 
surpass the recklessness and folly of attempting to 
establish a point of such interest by considerations 
like these, that have not the remotest bearing on it? 
If the fulfillment of these decrees was a condition of 
Buonaparte's being the party symbolized by the head 
of the beast, the argument was very unfortunate for 
Mr. Faber ; as the marks, he here employs to identify 
Napoleon as the power represented by the seventh 
head of the beast, wholly failed. The imperial prince 
never became the King of Pome ; nor was Buona- 
parte ever crowned in St. Peter's at Pome. Before 
these decrees were carried into effect, he was struck 
from his throne, and from life, and was soon after fol- 
lowed into the invisible world by his son. Of what 
more reprehensible perversion of acts and events was 



THE WILD BEAST OF SEVEN HEADS. 57 

a writer ever guilty, than that to which Mr. Faber 
here descended ? 

Arid finally, he is equally mistaken and absurd, in 
his pretext that Buonaparte, as represented by the 
seventh head of the beast, met at Waterloo the catas- 
trophe, which is symbolized by the deadly wound of 
that head. There is no correspondence between the 
events. Buonaparte was not put to death by a sword 
on the field of Waterloo. He was not divested of his 
imperial title and authority, by his defeat on that bat- 
tle-ground. So far was he from it, that he retreated 
to Paris, and there, after some delay, abdicated his 
throne, surrendered himself into the hands of the 
English, and was conveyed to St. Helena, where at 
the distance of seven years he died a natural death. 
The event which Mr. Faber alleges to prove that Na- 
poleon was the emperor denoted by the seventh head 
of the beast, thus instead of verifying that pretext, 
confutes it. 

5. It is scarcely necessary to add, that he failed in 
like manner to present any proof of the assertion 
advanced in his tract on the subject, issued in 1853, 
that Louis Napoleon, by his usurpation of supreme 
power, became the imperial chief of the western Ro- 
man empire ; and as such, is symbolized by the 
seventh head of the wild beast. He offers nothing 
except empty pretexts, and confident asseverations 
to support that preposterous persuasion. Intoxicated 
with self-elation, at the imagined confirmation of his 

3* 



58 mr. faber's theory of 

theory, he did not descend to the task of proving it, 
but contented himself with blowing the trumpet of 
the far-seeing and demi-semi-prophetic perspicacity 
he imagined he had exhibited, in prognosticating the 
assumption of the French sceptre by the nephew of 
Napoleon. As Napoleon Buonaparte himself did 
not become the imperial chief of the western empire 
of the Romans, by becoming the imperial head of the 
empire of France ; how did the fact that Louis Napo- 
leon seized the sceptre of France, any more constitute 
him the imperial head of the old western empire? 
How did his elevation of himself to the throne of 
France, invest him with the titles and prerogatives of 
the ancient emperors of the west, any more than the 
elevation of Louis XVIII, Charles X, and Louis 
Philippe to the French throne, after Buonaparte's 
overthrow, invested them with those ancient titles 
and prerogatives ? The pretext is too self-subverting 
and preposterous to require any farther refutation. 

Thus every step in the long train of assumptions, 
and assertions on which Mr. Faber reared his theory, 
is false, and in open contradiction both to the pro- 
phecy, and to history. Of what portentous falsifi- 
cations and solecisms is it made up? No power 
represented by the seventh head of the beast, has 
been in existence for near fourteen centuries; and 
none is ever again to appear in the territory of the 
western Bom an empire, or any where else on the 
earth. The sovereignty of the western imperium, 



THE WILD BEAST OF SEVEN HEADS. 59 

instead of remaining in the hands of an imperial line 
after the fall of Augustulus, passed to the ten Gothic 
kings, who erected kingdoms for themselves out of 
the old western empire which they had conquered ; 
and it has been held by them from that time to the 
present day. And that transition of the supreme 
rule, from a line of emperors, like those denoted by 
the sixth and seventh heads of the wild beast, to 
kings, is clearly foreshown in the Apocalypse, ch. 
xiii. 1., by the absence of the crowns from the heads 
of the beast, and their presence on the ten horns. 
~No apology, therefore, exists for the monstrous mis- 
representation and caricature of both the prophecy 
and of history of which Mr. Faber was guilty in the 
structure of his theory. It bears the marks of a 
deliberate and unscrupulous figment, and deserves 
the severe censure of all who revere the word of 
God, and appreciate the importance of truthful state- 
ments of the great facts of history that intimately 
touch the interests of his kingdom.* 

* This feature of Mr. Faber's theory of the wild beast, will occasion 
no surprise to those who are aware that he laid it down in his Sac. Calen- 
der of Prophecy, as a fundamental rule in the treatment of the Apoca- 
lypse, that the expositor should begin his work by framing a theory of 
the great train of agents, acts, and events which the Revelation foreshows, 
and determine their nature, their order, and their connexions with each 
other, independently of, and antecedently to, any interpretation of the 
symbols themselves. He only followed his own supreme rule, therefore, 
when he set aside or misrepresented the teachings of the prophecy, and 
the facts of history, and substituted the fictions of his imagination in 
their place. See his S. Cal. first edition, vol. i., p. 327. 



60 me. faber's 



CHAPTER IY. 

Mr. Faber's Chronological Theory is also erected in a large degree on 
Supposititious Grounds, and Misrepresents alike the Word of God and 
the Facts of History. 

The next important element in the scheme of 
these writers, is their chronology of the four great 
empires of Daniel, and of the 2300, 1260, 1290, and 
1335 days, and other periods, that are expressly 
foreshown as the measures of certain acts, or con- 
ditions of some of the symbols of Daniel and John. 
Among them, Mr. Faber holds a leading place. It 
is marked, however, by the same defects ; — inconsis- 
tency with those prophecies and with the facts of his- 
tory, — as characterize his speculations respecting the 
beast of seven heads. His theory is — that the times 
of the Gentiles, commenced with the birth of Nebu- 
chadnezzar, and are to extend through two thousand 
■Rve hundred and twenty years ; that the twelve hun- 
dred and sixty years, and forty-two months of Daniel 
and John, are the last half of that period ; that they 
had their commencement at the delivery of the 
saints into the power of the little horn of Dan. vii. 
25, and that they are to terminate somewhere be- 
tween 1863 and 1875 ; when, according to him, the 



CHRONOLOGICAL THEORY. 61 

present dispensation is to end, the powers denoted 
by the wild beast are to be destroyed, and a new and 
more benign economy is to be instituted. 

As in the structure and support of his theory 
respecting the wild-beast, and other symbols of 
Daniel and John, he proceeds on the most unhes- 
itating assurance that his chronological dates and 
periods to which he adjusts his constructions of those 
prophecies, are correct ; it is manifest that in order 
to the verification of his constructions, his calendar 
of times and dates, should be sustained by the most 
indubitable proofs. For to convict it of great and 
fatal errors, will be to overthrow again the whole 
fabric of his theory respecting the most important 
symbols, and predictions of which he treats. I shall 
proceed, therefore, to show that the main grouuds on 
which he builds his Calendar of prophetic times, is 
supposititious and false. I shall confine myself mainly 
to his theory, inasmuch as his scheme is substantially 
that which is held by the writers whose speculations 
I am to notice on other topics. 

After stating that "in the prophecies of Daniel 
and John we find several different numbers specified, 
as the measures of certain chronological periods," he 
adds : 

" These numbers are, three times and a half, 42 months, 
12G0 days, 2300 days, 1290 days, 1335 days; 70 weeks, 21 days, 
5 months, 10 days, three days and a half, and a day, a month, 
and a year. 



62 me. faber's 

" Of such numbers, the three times and a half, the 42 months, 
and the 1260 days, are mutually equivalent ; those terms ex- 
pressing only, in varied phraseology, one and the same period : 
for if we reckon a time, or a year to contain 360 days ; 42 
months, or 1260 days will be exactly equal to three such years 
and a half. 

" By a similar mode of reduction, 5 months are equal to 150 ; 
70 weeks to 490 days ; and with a variation which will in this 
instance be accounted for, a day, and a month, and a year con- 
jointly to 396 days. 

" Hence when the various numbers are homogeneously ex- 
pressed by days, they will stand as follows: 1260 days, 2300 
days, 1290 days, 1335 days, 490 days, 21 days ; 150 days, 10 
days, three days and a half, and 396 days. 

" To these numbers we must add another, which is the root 
of all those smaller numbers that are included in it ; a number 
specified indeed by the prophet Daniel, but specified only after 
a mystical or typical fashion. The number to which I allude 
is seven times, or 2520 days. 

" This radical and perfect number is produced, by the dupli- 
cation of the broken and imperfect number three times and a 
half; and we shall find in the sequel, that it comprehends in its 
own ample term, not only its two moities, or the two imperfect 
numbers of three times and a half respectively, but likewise the 
twelve hundred and ninety days, the seventy weeks, the five 
months, the 10 days, the 21 days, the three days and a half, the 
day and the month and the year, and by far the greater part 
of the 2300 days. Such being the case, the 7 times, or the 
2520 days constitute a measure that may well be denominated, 
the sacred Calendar of Prophecy; and for the purpose of prac- 
tical application, this measure is made, as we shall hereafter 
see, the gage or span of the great Metalic linage ; whether 
that image be viewed as chronologically progressive through 



CHRONOLOGICAL THEORY. 63 

four mighty successive empires, or as geographically comploted 
in the last mighty empire of the Romans. The measure of seven 
times, being thus made the chronological measure of the suc- 
cession of the four Gentile empires, we find our Lord alluding 
to it under the significant appellation of The Times of the 
Gentiles. 

" The seven times or the 2520 days, which constitute the 
Times of the Gentiles, or the Sacred Calendar of prophecy, are 
followed by a season of blessedness, which is said by Daniel to 
begin at the commencement of a period of 1335 days." Sac. 
Col., vol. i. 2 edition, pp. 27, 28. 

I proceed now to show that his Calendar is built 
on a supposititious foundation, and not only has no 
authority from the Scriptures, but is in contradiction 
to their plain and indubitable teachings. 

1. The corner stone on which his chronological 
editice rests, is the assumption and assertion that 
" seven times " are given in the prophecy of Daniel, 
cli. iv. 16, 23, 32, as the gage or span of the great 
"Metalic Image;" and the measure of the period 
denominated by Christ, the times of the Gentiles. 
But that assumption is mistaken in every respect. 

First. No such number as 2520 years is mentioned 
in that prophecy. This Mr. Faber himself admits, 
and he proposes to add that period to those which 
are given in that prophet, that he may have a num- 
ber that will meet the demands of the Calendar he 
was about to frame, as " a gage " of the great 
image, and measure of the times of the Gentiles. 
He laid the foundation, therefore, as I shall show, of 



64r ME. FABEr's 

the structure he was about to rear with a conscious- 
ness that it was an assumption or theory for which 
lie had no express warrant. 

Next. But that is not the only reprehensible fea- 
ture of his procedure ; for he founds his representa- 
tion that such a period is indicated in Daniel, on the 
false pretext that the seven times, ch. iv. 16, 23, 32, 
which are given as the period during which Nebu- 
chadnezzar was to be driven from his court and 
dwell with the beasts of the field ; are also given as 
a measure of the period symbolized by the great 
image. He says that number is specified by the 
prophet Daniel, but specified only after a mystical 
or typical fashion. The number is seven times, or 
2520 days." That, however, is not only without 
authority, but is a gross misrepresentation of the 
words. To say that " the seven times " are used in a 
mystical or typical fashion, is to say that they are 
employed in the same relation as the twelve hun- 
dred and sixty days, and a time, times, and a half, 
are used, namely as symbols of a number of years, 
that corresponds to the number of days that are 
employed as the representative. For there is no 
other mode in which periods of time are used in a 
mystical way, as representatives of periods that dif- 
fer from themselves, while they bear to them an an- 
alogy. But the seven times of Daniel iv, are not 
employed in that relation. They are expressly given 
as the period of Nebuchadnezzar's degradation from 



CHRONOLOGICAL THEORY. 65 

his regal station and banishment among the beasts 
of the field ; and exclusively as the measure of that 
period. This will appear indubitably true as I ad- 
vance in the analysis of the passage. That Mr. 
Faber wholly misrepresents the words, when he 
ascribes to them the office of a symbol, used on the 
principle of analogy, is seen from the facts ; 

First, That the words "seven times" of our version, 
answer exactly to the terms of the original, seven 
being a numeral, and iddanin, fixed and well- 
known periods of time ; and mean, therefore, it is 
universally admitted, and by Mr. Faber himself, 
seven solar years. Yol. ii. pp. 23, 24. 

Secondly, The seven times are not given as the 
measure in any sense of the age of the image. No 
such period nor any other exists in that vision, as 
literally or symbolically the measure of the ages 
during which the career of the four empires denoted 
by the four metals were to continue. There is no 
chronological element whatever in the dream. The 
periods through which the several dynasties symbol- 
ized in it were to exist, are concealed. There is 
nothing in the dream or the interpretation of it that 
can be made the ground of any determination re- 
specting them ; and this significant fact Mr. Faber 
well knew : for if the vision of the image presents 
any key to the range of time through which the four 
dynasties were to exist, why did he resort to the 
vision of the fourth chapter, which has no reference 



66 me. faber's 

to that of the second, to wrench from it if he could 
some clue to what God has chosen to conceal ? To 
take the seven times of Nebuchadnezzar's degrada- 
tion, chapter iv., as the measure of the duration of 
the powers represented by the image, is therefore 
arbitrary, and a palpable violation of the prophecy. 
Mr. Faber can no more make them the measure 
of the image, than he can the 2300 days of the 
eighth chapter, or the time, times, and half a time of 
the twelfths. 

Third, But beyond this, the terms " seven times " 
are not even applied to the tree itself, which was the 
great symbol of the vision, and the symbol of 
Nebuchadnezzar : nor are they applied to the stump 
and roots of the tree, which, as symbols of Nebu- 
chadnezzar's continued life, were to be preserved 
from destruction, to show that he should be kept in 
life through his degradation, and at length be rein- 
stated in his kingdom. They are applied exclusively 
to Nebuchadnezzar himself. It was not necessary to 
apply them to the tree in order to put a limit to the 
period in which the roots and stump were to remain 
in the ruin to which they were reduced ; inasmuch 
as the office of the tree as a symbol, in being cut 
down, was simply to represent Nebuchadnezzar's 
dethronement ; and the object of the preservation of 
the roots and stump in life, was to show that Nebu- 
chadnezzar was to be kept in life till the time came 
for his restoration to his reason and his throne. The 



CHRONOLOGICAL THEORY. 67 

roots, stump, and stem, were not, at the end of his 
chastisement, to be restored to the life, greatness, 
and strength, in which thej had nourished before the 
trunk was cut down, and its branches hewn off, in 
order to show that Nebuchadnezzar should in like 
manner be restored to his reason, his manliness, and 
the dignities and prerogatives of his regal office. His 
restoration to his senses, and to his throne were pre- 
dicted without a symbol, in simple, unfigurative lan- 
guage. "And whereas they commanded to leave 
the stump of the tree-roots ; thy kingdom shall be 
sure unto thee, after that thou shalt have known that 
the heavens do rule." The narrative of the fulfill- 
ment of the vision is in like manner given in simple 
language, without either symbol or figure. " At the 
same time my reason returned unto me, and for the 
glory of my kingdom, mine honor and brightness 
returned unto me ; and my counsellors and my lords 
sought unto me, and I was established in my king- 
dom." The seven times thus, are not applied to the 
great symbols of the vision, to indicate the period 
during which the stem, and its roots should con- 
tinue in their ruin ; but are predicated exclusively of 
Nebuchadnezzar, in the vision itself, in its interpreta- 
tion, and in the account given of its fulfillment. The 
language of the holy one who came down from 
heaven was, " Let his heart be changed from man's, 
and let a beast's heart be given unto him ; and let 
seven times pass over him" And in like manner in 



68 me. faber's 

the explanation of the dream, the times are predi- 
cated only of Nebuchadnezzar. " This is the inter- 
pretation, O king ; and this is the decree of the Most 
High, which is come upon my lord the king. They 
shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be 
with the beasts of the field, and they shall make 
thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee 
with the dew of heaven ; and seven times shall pass 
over thee, till thou know that the Most High ruleth 
in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever 
he will." This predication of the seven times, ex- 
clusively of the person who was represented by the 
symbol of the vision, and its application to him 
alone, in the vision, interpretation, and history of the 
fulfillment, show in the most decisive manner, that 
that period was not used as a symbol, on the princi- 
ple of analogy, to represent years by days, but was 
employed in its literal meaning, to denote seven 
natural years. Interpretations indeed are always 
given in simple language, never in symbols, which 
would themselves require interpretation, as much as 
that which they were employed to explain. 

Fourth. Mr. Faber's construction implies, more- 
over, that the " seven times " are used with a double 
meaning; first, as literal, natural years, in their 
office as the measure of Nebuchadnezzar's degrada- 
tion ; and next, as a symbol on the principle of anal- 
ogy, to denote a period that corresponds in the num- 
ber of its years to the number of days embraced in 



CHRONOLOGICAL THEORY. 69 

seven years. For as they unquestionably are used in 
their literal sense in their application to Nebuchad- 
nezzar, to express the period during which his humi- 
liation was to continue ; if they are also employed, 
as Mr. Faber affirms, to denote a period of 2520 
years, they must have a double sense. Mr. Faber 
accordingly ascribes to them that two-fold meaning ; 
and gives his sanction to the doctrine maintained by 
many of the writers who follow him in his theory of 
the wild beast, and in his chronology ; that the chro- 
nological predictions generally have a double signifi- 
cation, and are to have a double accomplishment. 
But that is wholly unauthorized, and is a consummate 
misrepresentation and caricature of the prophecies ; 
as I shall show in a later chapter. 

Fifth. Mr. Faber, in assuming that the seven times 
of Nebuchadnezzar's humiliation, are symbols of the 
2520 years, which he avers are the period through 
which the career of the four great empires is to ex- 
tend, assumes that Nebuchadnezzar was himself, in 
his insanity, divestiture of power and degradation 
to the condition of a beast, a symbol of the rulers of 
those four empires through the period of 2520 years, 
during which he represents that their reign is to con- 
tinue. For if he is not the symbol of those ruiers ; 
how can the period of his degradation be the symbol 
of an analogous period through which they were to 
be subjected to some similar condition? If his time 
represents theirs, nothing can be more certain than 



70 mr. faber's 

that lie himself is their symbol, and his condition a 
symbol of their condition. If he did not stand in 
that relation to them, no connection could subsist 
between the seven years of his humiliation, and the 
2520 years of their corresponding subjection to evil. 
Mr. Faber, indeed, not only assumes that Nebuchad- 
nezzar was their symbol, but openly maintains it. 
Thus he says : 

" The golden head is positively declared to be Nebuchadnez- 
zar himself, in his quality of sovereign of the first empire. 
Thou art this head of gold. Hence the rise of tbe golden head 
is not the commencement of the Babylonian empire, like the 
ascent of the first great beast from the troubled seas, but the 
epoch is specifically limited to the age of the individual king, 
Nebuchadnezzar, so that the rise of the golden head is the rise 
of that particular monarch ; and as the symbol is borrowed 
from the human form which is born and lives and dies, the rise 
of the golden head must coincide with the birth of Nebuchad- 
nezzar, who is himself accordingly the type or federal represen- 
tative, or animating principle of the four empires collectively 
shadowed out by the image. The true date, therefore, from 
which the age of the statue must be calculated as the Grand 
Prophetic Calendar, is the birth of the individual king, Nebu- 
chadnezzar. Thou art this head of gold." — Sac. Cal., vol. ii.p. 6. 

" The head of gold, as we are assured by Daniel, is Nebu- 
chadnezzar himself. Hence, as the image, is an image of a man ; 
and as the man, Nebuchadnezzar is the head or principle of the 
image, the human image in which according to the laws of 
nature the head is first protruded, must synchronize with the 
birth of its type the individual Nebuchadnezzar." — Sac. Cal., 
vol. ii. pp. 7, 8. 



CHRONOLOGICAL THEORY. 71 

He thus openly asserts that Nebuchadnezzar was 
"the type* or representative of the four empires 
shadowed out by the image ;" and attempts to prove 
it by the fact that the image was a symbol of a suc- 
cession of supreme rulers, of whom Nebuchadnezzar 
was the first. But how does the fact that Nebuchad- 
nezzar was one of the personages symbolized by the 
image, show that he was in his place a type or sym- 
bol of the image and all that it denoted, any more 
than the fact that his successors, Evil Merodach his 
son, and Neriglissar his son-in-law, and Nabonadius 
his grandson, were also among those represented by 
the image, and by its golden head as well as himself? 
If his belonging to the train of monarchs whom the 
image represented, made him a symbol of the image 
and all that it denoted, then for the same reason 
every one in the succession of rulers of the four 
empires must have been a symbol of the image and 
all that it represented ; and Mr. Faber confutes him- 
self by proving that no such distinction belonged to 
Nebuchadnezzar as he assigns to him. If Mr. Faber's 
assumption is legitimate, Nebuchadnezzar stood on 
exactly the same level as every other supreme ruler 
in the four empires. 

But what can transcend the senselessness of the pre- 
text to which he resorts to prove that Nebuchadnez- 
zar filled the symbolic office he ascribes to him, 
namely, that because the image was of the human 
form, it must be considered as originating in a birth I 



72 me. fabek's 

The image presented itself to Nebuchadnezzar in a 
dream under the all-directing providence of the 
Almighty. It was not born of a mother. Who ever 
before imagined that mental conceptions and statues 
and pictures of the human form, beheld in dreams, 
or seen by the bodily eyes, are by the laws of nature 
born of mothers ! Or who ever before gravely 
assumed and maintained that such mental concep- 
tions and material statues and pictures must be consi- 
dered as dated at the birth of the persons whom they 
represent ! It is not consistent with the laws of nature, 
it seems, on Mr. Faber's theory, that imaginations or 
images should be formed of human beings in mature 
life ! Such are the silly expedients on which he relies 
to give a color of truth to his lawless and self-con- 
futing attempt to prove that Nebuchadnezzar was a 
symbol of the image, and all that was represented 
by it. 

But in that pretext he implies and assumes that 
Nebuchadnezzar truly filled the office he ascribes to 
him ; and thereby exhibits him as symbolizing the 
image and the rulers it represents, not only in the 
successful part of his career, but also in the catas- 
trophes and indignities with which he was smitten. 
For his loss of his reason, his expulsion from his 
throne and his capital, and his degradation to the 
condition of a brute, must have been personated by 
him as to befall those whom he symbolized ; as much 
as he represented them in his pre-eminence in genius, 



CHRONOLOGICAL THEORY. 73 

and his activity and splendor as a monarch and con- 
queror ; and the period of his humiliation was a 
prophecy that the dishonors and miseries that were to 
befall them were to continue through the analogous 
period of two thousand five hundred and twenty 
years. And that implies that each one of the long 
line of those rulers was to be subjected to a degrada- 
tion like that of the monarch of Babylon through a 
period of that length. For Nebuchadnezzar, if their 
symbol, must represent them, not in a mass, as 
though but a single individual ; but as a series of indi- 
viduals, each of whom was to suffer dethronement, 
insanity, and degradation to a level with the beasts 
for a period, as much longer than seven years, as 
2520 year? sire longer than 2520 days. But what 
greater vie- jion of the divine word was ever perpe- 
trated, than that which Mr. Faber's construction thus 
involves ? Or what more effective confutation of his 
boasted calendar of the prophecies, could he have 
devised ? If each of the long line of rulers symbol- 
ized by the great image, some of whom probably 
have not yet entered into life, are to pass through a 
period of 2520 years of catastrophes and disgraces, 
before they reach the end of their career, his great 
almanac of the times of the Gentiles, instead of end- 
ing as he held in 1863, has 2500, 2600, and perhaps 
a longer course to run before it will arrive at its 
close. 

Such are the overwhelming proofs that his chronol- 

4 



74: ME. FABER S 

ogy is founded on a supposititious ground. There is 
no such period known to the prophecy of Daniel, as 
2520 years. Nebuchadnezzar is not employed as a 
symbol of the rulers of the four great, empires de- 
noted by the metalic Image. The dethronement and 
degradation of Nebuchadnezzar are not used in it as 
symbols of similar humiliations and disgraces that 
were to befall the rulers of those empires : and 
this is not only clear from the prophecy itself, but is 
placed beyond doubt, by the fact that no such catas- 
trophes as overwhelmed the monarch of Babylon, 
have been experienced by the other individuals of 
the line denoted by the image. Mr. Faber's whole 
theory in respect to the "seven times," is thus a 
sheer fiction, got up for the purpose of framing a 
scheme of chronology, that should have the air of 
great exactitude, and be capable by false constructions 
of a seeming corroboration from the revelations that 
are recorded in Daniel. 

2. He falls into equal errors and self-confutations, 
in his attempt to prove that the fictitious period of 
2520 years, is the span of the great metalic image, or 
measure of the duration of the four great lines of 
rulers of the Gentile nations, symbolized by the 
image, and by the four great beasts of Daniel. He 
presents his theory in the following passages : — 

" It is manifest that the sacred calendar, and great almanac 
of prophecy, is a prophetic chronology of times measured by the 



CHRONOLOGICAL THEORY. 75 

succession of Daniel's four principal kingdoms. Such being the 
case, the length of the sacred calendar, is the duration of those 
four kingdoms, under their scriptural aspect ; or the duration 
of the life of the image, reckoned from the commencement of 
the golden head. . . . But the golden head is declared to be the 
individual Nebuchadnezzar himself. Therefore the great alma- 
nac commences with the Mrth of that prince. The precise year 
of his birth, history does not determine ; but as the epoch of his 
reign and of his victories is well known, we may be sure from 
our knowledge of this epoch, that he must have been born in 
the course of the ten years, which elapsed between the years 
658 and 646 before the Christian era. Hence it will follow 
that the great almanac of prophecy commenced at some point 
between those two years." — Sac. Cal., Vol. i., 2>P> 68, 69. 

Here are several very important errors and self-con- 
tradictions. In the first place, he now represents his 
great calendar of 2520 years, as commencing at the 
birth of Nebuchadnezzar. But in his theory respect- 
ing the " seven times," he as explicitly exhibits the 
beginning of the seven years of Nebuchadnezzar's 
exile from his palace and court, as the commence- 
ment of the 2520 years. The seven times, he asserts, 
were the span of the great image, and measure of the 
duration of the four great empires. Here is a differ- 
ence of eighty seven years, between his two dates ; 
and as neither of them can be determined with exact- 
ness, and as it is indubitably certain, that neither of 
them was the commencement of the period of the 
image, his dates themselves, and their contradiction 
to each other vitiates the whole series of his calcula- 



76 me. faber's 

tions respecting the true place of the events that have 
followed to the present time. Whether he reckons 
the events of the first twelve hundred and sixty years 
from the birth of Nebuchadnezzar, or from his degra- 
dation to the condition of a brute ; every one of them 
will be assigned to a wrong year ; and whether he 
reckons from either of those dates to the beginning 
of his second twelve hundred and sixty years, his 
calculations will be equally uncertain and deceptive. 
Each of his estimates of the beginning of his great 
period, is thus wholly supposititious and demonstrably 
false. 

In the next place. By his own admission, the pre- 
cise year of the birth of Nebuchadnezzar, is unknown 
and indeterminable. He holds that it may have 
taken place in any one of the ten years that inter- 
vened between 653 and 64:6 before the Christian era. 
Every event the date of which is to be determined 
by its distance from his birth, is of course therefore 
involved in equal uncertainty. An almanac founded 
on such mere imaginary and false grounds, cannot be 
of any authority. To denominate it a sacred calendar 
of prophecy, is an offence to truth and decorum. In 
the third place. Mr. Faber offers a direct contradic- 
tion to the divine Word and to history, in referring 
the commencement of the four kingdoms to the birth 
of Nebuchadnezzar. That prince was not born the 
monarch of Babylonia, nor did he enter on that office 
until he was formally inaugurated as king a shoit 



CHRONOLOGICAL THEORY. 77 

time before the death of his father, which took place, 
it is generally held, within a year of his accession to 
the throne. His vision of the great image took place 
in the third year of his reign as sole monarch, proba- 
bly in B.C. 602. The prophecy accordingly exhibits 
him, at the time of the vision, as the king of Baby- 
lonia, and in possession of all the powers and prero- 
gatives that belong to a despotic monarch. No allu- 
sion is made to his birth, to his infancy or childhood, 
or to his becoming sole monarch on the decease of 
his father. " This is the dream, and we will tell the 
interpretation thereof before the king. Thou O king 
art a King of kings ; for the God of heaven hath 
given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and 
glory ; and wheresoever the children of men dwell, 
the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the heaven, 
hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee 
ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold." 
Ch. ii. 36-38. It, therefore, was not until the time 
of the vision itself, or at least, not till he became the 
sole monarch of his empire, that the period began 
during which the head of gold represented him as 
the monarch of Babylon, and the time commenced, 
during which the rulers denoted by the image, were 
to exercise their sway. It was at the distance, there- 
fore, from the latest year in which Mr. Faber holds 
it could have occurred, of at least forty years. He, 
however, refers it in his table of dates to the year 
657 before Christ, which is fifty-three or four years 



78 me. faber's ; 

before the date of the vision. This discrepancy with 
the prophecy again vitiates the whole series of his 
dates that depend on it, and postpones the close of 
his 2520 years half a century beyond the time to 
which he refers it. 

3. The reason that Mr. Faber assigned the birth 
of Nebuchadnezzar to the interval between B. C. 
658 and 64:6, was simply to place it back far enough 
to admit 1260 years after it, before the 1260 of Daniel 
vii. 25, commenced. His estimate of the date of 
Nebuchadnezzar's birth has no ground in history, but 
is in direct contradiction to Berosus, who as quoted 
by Josephus in Antiq. Judaeorm, book x. c. xi., rep- 
resents Nebuchadnezzar as only of mature age, instead 
of forty or fifty years at his father's death : and ex- 
hibits the death of the father as the effect of sickness, 
not of old age, as Mr. Faber maintains. Thus : 



" When his father heard that the person who had been ap- 
pointed Satrap in Egypt, Coele Syria and Phoenicia, had revolt- 
ed from him, being himself still disabled by illness, he entrust- 
ed a part of the forces to his son Nebuchadnezzar, now of a 
mature age, and sent him against him. And Nebuchadnezzar 
meeting the rebel and making battle, conquered him, and from 
this beginning reduced the territory under his rule. But it 
happened about that time, that the father — Nabopolassar — hav- 
ing contracted a disease, died in the city of Babylon after he 
had reigned twenty-one years. And Nebuchadnezzar, on being 
apprised with little delay, of the death of his father, and having 
arranged affairs in Egypt and the neighboring regions, and giv- 



CHRONOLOGICAL THEORY. 79 

en command that the Jewish, Phoenician, Syrian, and Egyptian 
captives should be conducted under a powerful guard to Baby- 
Ion, he himself, with a few attendants, proceeded across the 
desert, to that city."* 

The expression ev rjXinia, here plainly denotes 
mature age, in contradistinction from such youthf ill- 
ness as would have disqualified Nebuchadnezzar for 
the important command with which he was entrusted. 
The word sometimes denotes youth, sometimes ma- 
ture age, as in the expression in John ix. 21., "he is 
of age, ask him," the meaning of which is, he is no 
longer a child ; he has reached a time of life in whicli 

* Ms'pvrjtai ds avtov tmv nqa^scov xal Bqqcoaadg iv tr\ 
tqitij icav XaXdalxmv latoqmv, Xsycov ovtcog. Axovaag ds 
6 nat)\q avtov Na@ov%odov66oqog, oti 6 tstayfxivog aatqd- 
nqg iv 78 Aiyvntco, ds toig nsqi t\v KolXvv £vqiav, ds t\v 
(botvixrfV tonoig dnoGtdrqg avtov ysyovsv, ov dvvdfisvog 
avtog eti xaxondftsiv, avGrqcag tea vim Nafiovftodovoaoncx) 
ovti iv rjXixia [xiqv tiva trig dvvdftswg snEpxpsv in avtov. 
£v[t[xi%ag ds NefiovxoSovoooqog tea dnoatdtn xal naqata^d- 
fisvog avtov ts ixqdrqas ; xal trjv %(6qav in ravtr^g t^g dq%ljg 
vrrb t\v avtov BaaiXsiav inoirjaatac. Tea ds natqi tw 
A r €@ov%odovoGoq(Q cvvrjfin xat avtov xaiqbv aqqcaGirjaavti iv 
tr\ BafivXcovicov noXsi fiEtaXXd^ai tbv ftlov, stv ftaaiXsvadvti 
sixoai iv. Ala&o^Evog ds fist ov noXr\v ^qovov t\v tov na- 
tqbg tsXsvtrjv Na$ov%odovoc6qov, nal xata<5tr\oag td xatd 
trjv Alyvntov nqdypata, xat t?jv Xoinqv %wqav, xai tovg 
alifj.aX(6tovg 'Iovdaimv ts ds ( I*oivixojv, ds JZvqmv, ds twv 
xata t\v Alyvntov iOvav, . . . avtog oq^rjaag oXiyoazbg did 
tov iqi'jftov naqsyivsrai elg BafivXwva. — Josephns, Ant. Jud., 
lib. x. c. xi. 



80 me. fabek's 

lie is capable of giving a suitable answer to jour 
questions. The expression, lie is of age, in our idiom, 
is of the same import ; denoting simply that he of 
whom it is affirmed has passed out of childhood and 
youth, and arrived at such maturity as to fit him to 
act for himself. That this is the true meaning of the 
word, Mr. Faber was unquestionably aware ; but he 
attempts to conceal his misrepresentation of it as de- 
noting forty or fifty years of age by saying, "it is 
ambiguous, but the context sufficiently determines 
the import ;" and proceeds to wrench it into a direct 
confirmation of his theory. He says, " It seems then, 
according to Berosus, that the elder Nebuchadnezzar 
was a very old and in firm man wJien he made his son 
colleague, and that the younger Nebuchadnezzar was 
at that time in mature age. Hence, if we suppose 
the father to have been between seventy and eighty 
years old at the time of his death, and the son (agree- 
ably both to the age of his father, and to the phrase- 
ology of Berosus), to have been from forty to fifty 
years old at the time of his association in the empire ; 
we shall make the birth of Nebuchadnezzar to have 
occurred some time between the years before Christ 
658, and §±5." Sac. Cat . Vol. ii. pp. 8, 9. 

Here are thus two palpable misrepresentations 
fabricated for the purpose of giving an air of truth 
to his arbitrary theory in respect to the birth of Neb- 
uchadnezzar : first, in the pretext that according to 
Berosus, Nabopolassar was a very old and infirm — 



CHRONOLOGICAL THEORY. 81 

tli at is — decrepit man at the appointment of his son 
as colleague. There is not a hint in Berosus to that 
effect : Instead, he expressly says that ]S"abopolassar 
was in ill health, and that he had contracted a dis- 
ease of which he died. But old age is not a disease ; 
nor is the fact that a person dies of a disease, as of a 
fever, any proof or sign that he is old and infirm. 
Berosus accordingly confutes Mr. Faber in place of 
yielding him any support. Next. He is guilty of a 
falsification of the expresson iv ?)\ixia, in mature 
age, in representing it as showing from the context, 
that ^Nebuchadnezzar in being of mature age, was 
forty or fifty years old. The object of Berosus in 
applying to him that term, manifestly was merely to 
show that he was not so young as to be inadequate 
to the command of the army and government of the 
provinces, with which he was intrusted. Had he 
been forty or fifty years old, it would have been a 
reflection on him to have said that he was of age : as 
it would have implied that he was tardy in reach- 
ing a competency for the high office he was called to 
fill. Such are the unscrupulous artifices to which 
Mr. Faber resorted to give an aspect of truth to 
the most unpardonable fictions on which he built his 
chronology. 

He falls into an error also, in his representation 
that the times of the Gentiles are identically the 
same in their commencement and duration, as the 
period of the four great empires symbolized by the 

4* 



82 mr. fiber's 

image. It is not a point indeed of much moment, 
except as it exemplifies the inaccuracy and unre- 
liableness that mark his speculations generally in 
respect to periods and events. There is nothing in 
the words of Christ respecting the times of the Gen- 
tiles, nor in any part of the Old or New Testament, 
that implies that the period designated by those 
words, is the same in beginning and duration, as the 
period of the four great empires. The prediction, 
" And Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gen- 
tiles, till the times of the Gentiles shall be com- 
pleted ;" implies that they are a period that derives a 
special characteristic from the supremacy of the 
Gentiles over the people of Israel ; and that they are 
foreshown in the ancient prophets, in predictions 
that are to have a specific fulfillment. The times of 
the Gentiles will reach their end when the great 
events take place which it is predicted in the Old 
Testament, are to mark their close. But no intima- 
tion is given that they are identically the same, as 
the times of the four great Gentile empires. So far 
from it, they are clearly foreshown in the Penta- 
teuch, in a form that renders it manifest that they 
began centuries before Nebuchadnezzar was repre- 
sented by the golden head of the image. The great 
characteristic of the times of the Gentiles, is, that 
they are the times in which the Gentiles were to 
domineer over the people of Israel, conquer their 
territory, demolish their cities, and carry them cap- 



CHRONOLOGICAL THEORY. 83 

tive into distant lands, where they were to hold 
them in a degrading and torturing bondage, till the 
time of their redemption. But those characteristics 
have not been confined to the period of the four 
great empires. They began far earlier in the inva- 
sion of Israel by the neighboring nations, and exer- 
cise over them of a despotic and crushing rule, 
while they remained in their own land. "And if ye 
shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my 
judgments, so that ye will not do all my command- 
ments ; I also will do this unto you : ye shall sow 
your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it ; and 
ye shall be slain before your enemies ; they that 
Late you shall reign over you ; and I will bring a 
sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of my 
covenant ; and ye shall be delivered into the hand 
of the enemy ; and I will destroy your high places, 
and cut down your images ; and I will make your 
cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries into, deso- 
lation." Levit. xxvi. 15-31. All these were evils 
with which they were to be smitten by foreign 
nations while they continued in their own land. 
Then follow predictions of their being carried into 
exile ; and the occupation of their desolated inher- 
itances by enemies and foreigners: "And I will 
bring the land into desolation, and your enemies 
who dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And I 
will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw 
out a sword after you ; and your land shall be deso- 



84: ME. FAEEE ? S 

late, and your cities waste," vs. 32, 33. There are 
similar predictions also, Deut. xxviii. 36, 49, 64. 
" The Lord shall bring thee, and thy king which 
thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither 
thou nor thy fathers have known, and there shalt 
thou serve other gods, wood, and stone. The Lord 
shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the 
end of the earth, as the eagle fiieth ; a nation whose 
tongue thou shalt not understand. And he shall be- 
siege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced 
walls come down wherein thou trustedst throughout 
all thy land. And the Lord shall scatter thee among 
all people, from the one end of the earth, even unto 
the other ; and there thou shalt serve other gods 
which neither thou, nor thy fathers have known ; — 
wood and stone." These predictions of conquests and 
oppressions by enemies while they continued in pos- 
session of their land, unquestionably had a large ful- 
fillment before the commencement of the period of the 
four great empires. It is equally indubitable that the 
predictions of their being carried into captivity by 
nations whose gods of wood and stone they should 
serve, had their accomplishment before the Babylo- 
nian exile ; inasmuch as the effect of that terrible 
chastisement was to recall them from the worship 
of idols. And we know that they had a fearful 
verification in the ten tribes who, after repeated 
invasions, were carried into exile, partly one hundred 
and thirty-eight, and partly one hundred and nine- 



CHRONOLOGICAL THEORY. 85 

teen years before the powers symbolized by the 
image began their career; and losing their knowledge 
of Jehovah, soon became the worshipers of the gods 
of the Gentiles, with whom they seem to have be- 
come indistinguishably intermixed. It is not to be 
supposed that that captivity of the ten tribes by the 
Assyrians, and abandonment by the Most High as 
his people, that have now continued for more than 
twenty-five centuries, and proved a far more fatal 
infliction, than what befell the tribes of Judah, Ben- 
jamin, and Levi under the Babylonians and Romans, 
were not contemplated in the denunciations of evil 
on them in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Instead, as 
those stupendous inflictions formed a chief part of the 
chastenings with w T hich it was the purpose of God that 
they should be smitten by the hands of the Gentiles, 
their period is unquestionably included in the times 
of the Gentiles. And this is rendered indubitable 
by the revelations that are made in the Old Testa- „ 
ment, that at the time when the domination of the 
Gentiles is to come to its end, the ten tribes are to 
be recalled to their ancient land, and to their rela- 
tions to God as his chosen people, as surely as the 
tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi are. When the 
Redeemer comes to Sion and turns away ungodli- 
ness from Jacob, all Israel shall be saved. Romans 
xi. 26. 

Mr. Faber is, therefore, wholly mistaken in his 
representation that the times of the Gentiles are 



86 me. faber's 

limited to the period of the four great empires ; and 
the pompous parade he makes of the important place 
he assigns them in his almanac of prophecy, is an 
unfortunate exemplification of the want of accuracy 
that reigns throughout his speculations in reference 
to the prophesies. 

5. He is mistaken in his judgment of the date of 
the delivery of the times, the laws, and the saints 
into the power of the little horn. 

The question whether the date to which Mr. Faber 
refers the delivery of the saints, and the times, and 
laws into the hands of the little horn of Daniel vii. 
25, is important, as on it the truth or falsehood turns 
of his estimates of all the subsequent events which 
he reckons from that act ; especially the time when, 
as he holds, the period symbolized by the twelve 
hundred and sixty days, is to end. 

He refers the investiture of the pope and his hier- 
archies — the power symbolized by the horn — with 
authority over the laws and the saints, to the year 
A.D. 604 : and chiefly on the assumption that in 
that year, on the seeming conversion of Ethelbert, 
king of Kent, the whole of the kings of the kingdoms 
into which the western Roman empire was divided, 
had embraced the Catholic faith, and yielded their 
assent to the claims which were made by the pope 
and his clergy, to supreme authority in religion. 
But the delivery of the laws and saints into the 
hands of the pope and his hierarchies, did not take 



CHEONOLOGICAL THEOET. 87 

place in the conversion of the monarchs and princes 
to belief in the Catholic religion ; nor in their 
simply assenting to the lofty claims of the Romish 
ecclesiastics to authority over the faith and worship 
of the church ; but was a decretive or legislative act 
of the monarchs and princes of each kingdom, to 
whom the power belonged, by which the Catholic 
church was legalized and made the ally and instru- 
ment of the state, and the officials of the church 
were invested with special rights, and clothed 
with authority to enforce their doctrines and ceremo- 
nies on their subjects by penalties. This is clear from 
the fact, that the assumed right of the church to perse- 
cute dissentients, was derived in all cases, from the 
civil power; and that power was in all instances, the 
executor of the decrees of the pope, the hierarchies, 
and the synods, against the property, the liberty, 
and the lives of those who were sentenced by them to 
punishment. But the legalization, and nationaliza- 
tion of the church in a state did not necessarily take 
place immediately on the conversion of the monarch 
and his court. It perhaps was not then anticipated, nor 
contemplated by them until some special exigency 
called for their intervention, to give effect to the will 
of the church. That the Catholic church was not 
nationalized in Kent, in England, in the year A.D. 
604, by being made the state church, and invested 
with power to persecute, is abundantly certain ; first, 
from the consideration that there is no record in the 



88 me. fabee's 

histories of the period, of any such act on the part 
of Ethelbert and his court : Instead, the king's mea- 
sures were merely those of toleration and friendli- 
ness to Augustin and his associates. Though he 
retained for a time, his attachment to his Pagan dei- 
ties, he gave the missionaries liberty to remain in the 
kingdom and to preach their doctrines to his people ; 
promised them protection ; made provision for their 
support ; and appropriated to their use an ancient 
monastery of the Britons : In the course of the next 
year the king professed himself a convert to the new 
religion, and with many of his subjects received the 
rite of baptism. But no laws were passed investing 
Augustin and his compeers with power to compel 
those who continued to be Pagans to unite in the 
Catholic worship, nor to punish them for their per- 
sistence in their idolatry. Both classes were tole- 
rated by the government. Nor were any measures 
resorted to by the king, to compel the native British 
Christians, of whom there were many, to conform in 
their faith and worship to the doctrines and observ- 
ances of the Catholic party. There were no doctri- 
nal differences between them to be the occasion of 
controversy and persecution. The only point on 
which they were not in agreement with each other, 
related to Easter. Next, That there was no nation- 
alization of the church in Kent at that period, is 
clear, moreover, on Mr. Faber's own theory, from 
the consideration that, if the delivery of the laws 



CHRONOLOGICAL THEORY. 89 

and the saints into the power of the horn, had been 
consummated at that epoch, the twelve hundred and 
sixty years of the horn's supremacy and persecution 
of the true worshipers, would have terminated in 
the year 1863. For he dated the commencement of 
the Gentile period in the year 657, before Christ, and 
as expressly assigned its completion to the year 1863. 
But we know that that period did not terminate in 
that year. ~No persecution and slaughter of the wit- 
nesses, which are immediately to follow the close of 
the twelve hundred and sixty years, took place at 
that time ; no signals appeared that the times of the 
Gentiles, which Mr. Faber held were to expire at 
the same moment, had reached their end. The non- 
occurrence of these, as well as many other events 
that are to precede, or attend the close of the twelve 
hundred and sixty years, demonstrates, in the most 
emphatic manner, that his theory in regard to the 
beginning and end of the domination of the papal 
power over the true worshipers, is totally mistaken ; 
a sheer, and undisguised figment, without any au- 
thority from the word of God, and against the most 
indubitable facts of history. Thirdly. That there 
was nothing beyond a mere toleration of the Catho- 
lic church, during the reign of Ethelbert, which con- 
tinued to the year 616 ; is clear also from the fact 
that paganism was equally permitted and protected 
during that period ; and that his son Eadbald, who 
succeeded him on the throne, for a time renounced 



90 me. faber's 

the Catholic religion and reverted to paganism, 
without any change of the laws. The worship of 
idols was as consistent, therefore, with the laws of the 
kingdom as the profession was of the Catholic faith. 
This is confirmed by the fact, that Redwald the king 
of East Anglia, who succeeded Ethelbert as Bret- 
walda of the Angles, was so far from a true faith in 
the Catholic religion, that he undertook to blend the 
two worships in the same temple; by placing an 
altar of "Woden by the side of an altar dedicated to 
the God of the Christians. Nothing can be more 
certain, therefore, than that there was then no law 
of the realm that gave the Catholics an exclusive 
right to offer worship, or any precedence in rank or 
privilege over those enjoyed by the worshipers of 
idols. And this toleration of both religions continued 
for a long period ; as is manifest, from the fact, that 
Edwin of Northumbria, who succeeded Eedwald 
as Bretwalda, and held the office seventeen years, 
continued in the practice of paganism during most 
of that period ; that it was not till the reign of Os- 
wald, who next held the office of Bretwalda, that the 
Northumbrians were generally led to embrace the 
Catholic faith ; and that paganism did not fall till 
the death of Penda, the king of Mercia, in A.D. 655, 
when under the auspices of Oswio then Bretwalda, 
the Mercians were converted, and the homage of 
idols was in the main discontinued ; except in the 
small realm of Sussex, which had never been unpa- 



CHRONOLOGICAL THEORY. 91 

ganized ; and of Kent which had long before returned 
from its nominal conversion under Augustin, to its 
former addiction to the worship of idols. It is indis- 
putable therefore that there was no general conversion 
either of the rulers or the people of England to the 
Romish church, until after the middle of the seventh 
century ; and no nationalization of the church and 
investiture of it with the power that was given to the 
little horn, until after that date. When that investi- 
ture took place, or when the persecution of dissenti- 
ents from the Catholic faith commenced, there are 
no means of determining. The war of the horn on 
the witnesses of Jesus began probably in some of the 
other kingdoms of western Europe at an earlier day 
than in England, but what the date was of the first 
persecution, is unknown and indeterminable. The 
time accordingly, when the twelve hundred and sixty 
years, which are the period of the horn's persecuting 
career, began, is not only unknown, but is shrouded 
beyond the possibility of discovery, until it shall be 
indicated by the occurrence of the events, which it is 
foreshown are to signalize its close. Mr. Faber's at- 
tempt to prove that it had its beginning in the year 
A.D. 604, is indubitably, therefore, an entire failure, 
and stamps his scheme again as a consummate mis- 
representation and caricature alike of the Word of 
God and the facts of history. 

I might point out other fatal errors in his chronol- 
ogy, but it is unnecessary. I have shown by ample 



92 ME. FAEEli's 

proofs that the whole of his calculations respecting 
the great prophetic periods, and the time when the 
present dispensation is to close, are wholly false. It 
will be seen in the chapters that follow, that with his 
chronology the speculations fall also which he and 
others found on it respecting Louis Xapoleon, and 
the agencies and catastrophes which they prognos- 
ticate of him as the imagined seventh head of the 
beast, the patron and persecutor of the Jews, and 
the Antichrist, who is to perish at the battle of 
Armageddon. 

To verify the foregoing statements respecting the 
conversion of the Angles, by quotations, would 
require too much space. They are founded on the 
testimony of Bede in his Hist. Gentis Anglorum. I 
give a few passages. 

1. That Ethelbert merely tolerated Augustin and 
his monks is seen from Book i., c. 25. "We are not 
disposed to molest you, but rather to receive you 
with hospitality, and supply you with the food you 
need : "Nov will we prevent any from joining you 
whom you are able to win by your preaching." 

2. He engaged that no one should be compelled to 
embrace the new faith. Those only were to enter 
the Christian society, who were prompted to it by 
conviction and desire. Book i., c. 26. 

3. On the death of Ethelbert in A.D. 616, Ead- 
bald his son who succeeded to the sceptre, refused to 
accept the Christian faith. At the same time the 



CHRONOLOGICAL THEORY. 93 

sons of Saberct, who held the throne of the East 
Saxons, openly gave leave to their subjects to wor- 
ship idols, and drove the bishops and their adherents 
from the kingdom. Book ii., c. 5. 

4. The Saxon princes refusing obedience to Ead- 
bald, Kedwald the king of East Anglia became Bret- 
walda, or head of the heptarchy : and renouncing 
the faith in Christianity he had once professed, un- 
dertook to unite paganism and the Christian worship 
in the same temple, by placing a small altar for vic- 
tims to demons, by the side of that on which obla- 
tions were to be presented to Christ. Book ii., c. 15. 

5. Edwin of Northumbria, who succeeded Redwald 
as Bretwalda, did not embrace the Christian faith 
until the eleventh year of his reign and the sixth 
before his death in A.D. 633. Book ii. c. 14, 15, 20. 

6. On the death of Edwin, Oswald a Christian 
prince, succeeded to the throne of Northumbria and 
becoming Bretwalda, induced a large share of the 
Northumbrians to renounce idolatry and join in the 
worship of Christ. Book iii., c. 1, 2. 

7. On the death in A.D. 640, of Eadbald, the son 
of Ethelbert, and a pagan, Earconberct inherited the 
sceptre, and was the first of the Anglo kings who 
renounced and destroyed the idols through his whole 
kingdom. Book iii., c. 8. 

8. In A.D. 653, the Eastern Saxons, who had re- 
nounced the Christian faith, under Sigberct accepted 
it again. Book iii., c. 22. 



94 me. faber's 

9. On the death of Oswald, Oswio of Northumbria 
became Bretwalda, and conquering Penda, the Pagan 
chief of the Mercians, in A.D. 655, and incorporating 
the territory in his own dominions, the Mercians 
abandoned their idols, and joined the ranks of the 
church. Book iii., c. 24. 

10. In A.D. 665, Signer, king of the Eastern 
Saxons, among whom Christianity was introduced 
under Ethelbert, renounced the Christian faith, and 
with his nobles undertook to restore the deserted 
temples of Paganism, and renew the worship of 
images. Book iii., c. 30. 

11. At length in A.D. 669, the races of the Angles, 
generally, wherever settled, embraced the Catholic 
rule of life ; that is, asceticism, monkery, and the 
homage of relics ; and observed the canonical mode 
of celebrating Easter : And Theodore, the archbishop, 
was the first to whom all the churches of the Angles 
gave the fraternal hand. Never before were there 
happier times from the first arrival of the Angles in 
Britain. Book iv., c. 2. 

12. iEdilred, king of the Mercians, in A.D. 676, 
invaded and devastated Canterbury, desecrated the 
churches and monasteries, and put the population of 
a considerable city to the sword. He and his army 
must, therefore, have been contemners and enemies 
of the Christians. Book iv., c. 12. 

13. In A.D. 681, Yilfrid, who had been driven 
from York, his bishopric, and for a time left England, 



CHRONOLOGICAL THEOEY. 95 

at length returned and established himself in the 
province of the South Saxons, and converted that 
people who had before lived in the practice of idol- 
atry, to the worship of Jehovah. Book iv., c. 13. 

14. In A.D. 686, through the labors of Yilfrid, the 
population of the small island Vecta, which had be- 
fore been wholly devoted to idolatry, were won to 
the faith of the gospel. Book iv., c. 16. 

Ninety years thus passed from the arrival of Au- 
gustin in Kent, before the struggle between Pagan- 
ism and the Catholic faith reached its close. When 
the new doctrine obtained a commanding supremacy 
and gave its character to the religion of the nation, 
it is not possible to decide : It plainly was not till 
late in the seventh century 



96 WRITERS AGREEING WITH MR. FABER 



CHAPTER Y. 

The principal writers who have embraced Mr. Faber's theory respecting 
the wild beast; and his chronology; and who hold with him that 
Louis Napoleon is symbolized by the seventh head of the beast, and is 
to be the Antichrist. 

For my knowledge of some of the writers who 
cherish these false views, I am indebted to Mr. Bax- 
ter's volume, entitled " Louis Napoleon, the destined 
Monarch of the "World, and Personal Antichrist ;" 
fourth edition, issued by Appleton & Co., and other 
publishers, in 1863. He gives the names of more 
than twenty authors who have treated of the theme. 
"With the most important of them I am familiar, and 
shall directly cite their pages. Mr. Frere, in his 
" Combined Yiew of the Prophecies," printed in 
1814, six years after Mr. Faber's first publication on 
the subject, and issued again in 1815, expressed the 
belief that Napoleon Buonaparte was the seventh 
head of the wild beast. On the fall and death of that 
personage, and assumption of the French sceptre by 
Louis Napoleon, he pronounced him an eighth head 
of the beast, and With an affectation of prophetic 
foresight, attempted to foreshow what were to be the 
great events of his career and its final catastrophe. 
Dr. Burgh, a clergyman of the English. Establish- 



m RESPECT TO TnE WILD BEAST. 97 

ment, published in 1830-1832, a series of Lectures 
on the Second Advent, in which he maintained that 
the seventieth week of Daniel was still future ; and 
that the prince that was to come, instead of Titus, 
is " the last enemy of the Jewish people, the last in- 
vader of the holy city, and the Antichrist." A 
volume of Lectures on the Hopes of the Church was 
given to the public by J. Darby, in 1842, in which he 
advocates the futurist, or literal day interpretation 
of the great periods of the prophesies ; and maintains 
that Daniel's seventieth week is still future, and is to 
be the last in this dispensation. Sir Edward Denny 
published in 1845, " A Companion to the Chart of 
the Seventy Weeks," in which he advances the same 
views respecting the seventieth week ; but holds that 
the prince that was to come, is the power that is 
symbolized by the little horn of the beast ; and will 
profess himself to be the Messiah of the Jews : and 
will perish at the battle of Armageddon. In '184:6 
S. P. Tregelles, D.D., the editor of Bagster's editions 
of the Scriptures, published a volume on Daniel, in 
which he asserts the futurity of Daniel's seventieth 
week, denies that the periods of time given in the 
prophesies of Daniel and John, are employed in the 
relation of analogy, as symbols of larger periods than 
they themselves literally express ; and not onl^ af- 
firms that the prince who was to come, has not appear- 
ed on the earth ; but avows his belief that all the 
great acts of the Messiah, spoken of in Dan. ix. 24, 

5 



98 WRITERS AGREEING WITH MR. FABER 

" to finish transgression ; to make an end of sin ; to 
make reconciliation for iniquity ; and to bring in 
everlasting righteousness," are still future. In 1846 
Mr. H. Kelsall put forth a volume on Antichrist, in 
which he advances essentially the same views of the 
seventieth week of Daniel, of the prince that was to 
come, and of the part he is to act as Antichrist. The 
Rev. C. Maitland issued, in 1849, a volume on "The 
Apostolic School of Interpretation," in which he 
unfolds at large essentially the same theory. In 
1849, the Rev. B. W. Newton published a volume on 
" The Prospects of the Ten Kingdoms," and in 18G3 
a second edition, in which he advocates substantially 
the same views, and treats at length of the main 
questions which the theory involves. In 1857-8 a 
still more important work, in three volumes, was pre- 
sented to the public by Mr. Beale, a Cambridge 
Master of Arts, under the title of " Armageddon ;" 
in which the most positive and ultra of the views of 
the party are asserted, respecting "the year day 
fulfillment of the prophesies that relate to the papal 
Antichrist and the Gentile church, and their subse- 
quent literal day accomplishment in Louis Napoleon 
the Personal Antichrist, and the Jewish church;" 
and other topics that belong to the general theme. 
Another voluminous writer on the subject, the Rev. 
R. A. Purdon, a clergyman of the Church of Eng- 
land, has published a monthly pamphlet on pro- 
phetic subjects for several years, and was among the 



IN RESPECT TO THE WILD BEAST. 99 

first to announce distinctly and- confidently that 
Louis Napoleon is the person who is to reveal him- 
self as the Antichrist ; his original declaration to that 
effect having been made in December, 1849, after 
the election of Louis Napoleon to the presidency of 
the republic of France. His subsequent writings 
have been devoted largely to the evolution and sup- 
port of his views respecting the political and spiritual 
dominion, which he persuades himself that emperor 
is to acquire throughout the world. 

I might enlarge this catalogue of writers who have 
embraced the great features of this system, and treat- 
ed it in its chief aspects ; but these are enough to 
show that it has in a degree been before the churches 
in Great Britain for more than half a century ; and 
that within the last twenty years it has been largely 
and earnestly discussed, and has attracted the interest 
and concurrence of a considerable body of readers. 
I present a few passages to indicate the attitudes in 
which they present the subject, and the confidence 
with which, they affirm and argue; and the extraordi- 
nary self-possession with which they run into the 
most discreditable blunders, and put forth the most 
unfortunate misrepresentations. 

The following passages are from Mr. Frere's Comb. 
Yiew, issued in 1814, and republished in the follow- 
ing year : — 

" I conceive that Buonaparte will not only revive the title 
of emperor of the Romans, but will actually make Rome the 



100 WETTEES AGEEEING WITH ME. FABEE 

place of his residence. This difficulty ' respecting the seventh 
and eighth head of the beast,' does not arise from the prophecy's 
being yet unaccomplished, but from an erroneous interpretation 
having been given to the symbol of the beast of the bottomless 
pit, by means of which the passage is made to represent the 
Eoman empire as becoming a Icing : whereas nothing can be 
more intelligible than this prophecy, when the new meaning " 
— advanced by Mr Frere — "is adopted; for it then declares 
that the spiritual beast of infidelity, the infidel power of the 
Apocalypse embodied in an individual, or the infidel king of 
Daniel, having been the seventh head of the Eoman empire as 
king of Italy, will also be the eighth head in another capacity, 
and probably therefore with the title of emperor of Eome." 

He adds in a note. " This prophecy which leads us to infer 
that Buonaparte will become emperor of Eome, is so confirmed 
by other circumstantial prophetic evidence, that I do not hesi- 
tate to avow my conviction of the certainty of the event; 
although he is at this time so situated (in Elba,) as in appearance 
to render such an event highly improbable. Having, however, 
more than a year ago, foreseen and declared from the prophetic 
writings, the reverses which France would undergo, and which 
she has since sustained, as well as the termination of her tyran- 
nical career, and the future removal of the empire of Buona- 
parte from France to Italy, I see nothing in his present circum- 
stances but what has a direct tendency to the accomplishment 
of the prophecies so understood. Three or four years will show- 
how far I am correct in my views, and I wish now to record 
my opinion that it may hereafter become an evidence of tho 
clearness and precision of the prophetic writings." — P. 105-6. 

This is written with the air of one who deems him- 
self raised up by Providence, and endowed with a 
prophetic foresight, that he might make known to 



IN EESPECT TO THE WILD BEAST. 101 

the church the import of an important symbol, of 
which it had lost the true meaning ; and apprise it 
of the approach of great events, as they were about 
to take place. He reveals that feature of delusion, 
without reserve, in the preface of his Three Letters 
republished in 1859. 

" The present critical state of the times and the excitement 
prevailing in men's minds, while looking for the things that are 
ooming on the earth, naturally induce the author of the follow- 
ing pages to make another attempt to call the attention of tlw 
church, and of the public, to the result of his prophetic labors, 
which have enabled him principally through the means of a 
new system of apocalyptic arrangement, and the adoption of a 
more stringent rule of interpretation, than commentators havo 
hitherto followed, not only to make known during the last 
forty -five years the general course of predicted events, but also at 
every critical period, to verify the truth of his system, by call- 
ing attention to the particular prophecy next about to receive 
its fulfillment."— P. 1. 

This presumptuous and boastful spirit, which had 
its origin on the one side, in a profound ignorance of 
the teachings of the divine Word, and the principles 
on which it is to be interpreted ; and on the other, in 
a blind and towering self-conceit ; reigns in a great 
measure through his writings. Instead of any indi- 
cations that he enjoyed special divine guidance, his 
vaunted predictions bespeak an extraordinary mea- 
sure of misapprehension and infatuation ; and had 
met, long before the republication of his letters, in 
1859, from the events of Providence, the most ovor- 



102 WRITERS AGREEING WITH MR. FABER 

whelming confutation. Thus Napoleon Buonaparte 
never became emperor of the Romans ; and never 
made Rome his capitol nor his residence. There is 
no " spiritual beast of infidelity " spoken of in the 
Apocalypse ; nor an " infidel power" exhibited there 
as " embodied in an individual ;" neither is there any 
intimation in that prophecy that " the seventh head 
of the Roman empire as king of Italy," is also to be- 
come " an eighth head in another capacity." . There 
is no allusion in the Apocalypse to a seventh, an 
eighth, or any other head of the Roman empire ; nor 
to an eighth head of the wild beast. No eighth head 
is ever to rise on that symbol. Mr. Frere mistakes 
a head for the eighth king, who is to be represented 
by the beast in its last form. Napoleon Buonaparte 
was not an infidel king, as Mr. Frere represents. 
The renunciation of Christianity by the French legis- 
lature and nation, took place before he rose to power ; 
and instead of concurring in it, on his gaining the 
throne, he felt so deeply the necessity of a State 
religion, that he re-nationalized the Catholic church, 
that he might employ it as an ally in the education 
and control of his people, who he saw if left without 
religion, would neither have the intelligence nor the 
conscience that are requisite to an effective and 
stable government. These consummate blunders 
are specimens of the utter want of an accurate 
knowledge of the prophesies which Mr. Frere affects 
to interpret by a special gift of inspiration ; and of 



IN RESPECT TO THE WILD BEAST. 103 

the wild misrepresentations of the facts of history, 
that mark his volumes on these subjects. 

The following citation is from Sir E. Denny's Com- 
panion to the Chart of Seventy Weeks, quoted hy 
Mr. Baxter : — 

" This great septenary period is divided into three distinct 
parts : Seven weeks ; threescore and two weeks ; and one week ; 
the first two of which follow in due continuous order, without 
interruption. "Whereas, "between the last two, namely, the 
three score and two weeks, and the one week, a long interval 
occurs ; these last two being separated, the one from the other, 
by the whole period of Israel's dispersion. 

"The period of sixty-nine weeks begins B. 0. 457 ; and as to 
the point in history when it was to end, we find that sixty-nine 
weeks out of the seventy, should elapse before the Messiah 
should be come ; that is, I believe, before he should be offered 
to Israel. I feel no hesitation in placing the end of this period, 
namely, the seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks, just 
at the point where John the Baptist began to tell of him who 
was coming, "before he actually appeared on the scene. 

" And after the threescore and two weeks, shall Messiah bo 
cut off, but not for himself. .On hastily reading this passage, 
one would naturally suppose that the Lord was cut off at the 
close of this period. But in these words the preposition after 
is indefinite. We do not read immediately after ; as if at the 
end of the period exactly. It was at the termination of this 
period that John the Baptist appeared as the prophet — the 
Elias of his day — announcing the coming Messiah. Between 
Messiah's announcement by John, and his death, an interval 
elapsed of seven years — or a week — divided into two equal 
parts ; the first three years and a half being the time of John's 
mission : — the next that of Jesus Christ himself. 



104 WRITERS AGREEING WITH MR. FARER 

" This unnoticed week, as I term it, of the Messiah's rejection, 
is left an utter olank'm the prophecy. . . The week of proffered 
blessing, was, as it were, altogether cancelled and blotted out. 
The one week of this prophecy will come in at the end of the 
Christian dispensation, to complete the full term of seventy 
weeks, and to supply the place of the forfeited week. 

" The last week of Daniel, thus detached from the rest, being 
the great crisis in the history of the world, previous to the set- 
ting up of the kingdom, the period of Israel's ripened apostasy, 
will be one of deep and awful interest, of unparalleled judgment : 
and between this and the forfeited week, there will be a sort of 
moral coincidence, as well as of palpable contrast : inasmuch, as 
one was the period when the true Messiah came forth and was 
rejected ; the other will be a time when the false Messiah will 
rise and be received by the Jews as the hope of their nation" . . 
"And the people of the prince that shall come, shall destroy 
the city. The prince that shall come on the other hand, is 
the last head or king of this very same people : the same as the 
little horn which Daniel beheld in his vision come forth out of 
the head of the great Eoman beast; who in the last day, when 
Israel shall have filled up their sin, in owning him as their Icing 
— their promised Messiah, will be used as a scourge more fear- 
ful by far than Nebuchadnezzar or Titus, or any of those who 
have trodden Jerusalem down from the very beginning. 
Such is the one who in the latter day will arise, and as we 
read in the prophecy, will enter into a covenant for one week 
with the deluded nation of Israel, who will present himself to 
them, and be received, as the expected Messiah; and then in 
the end, be used as a means of chastising that nation, who slew 
the Lord when he came." — Cited by Mr. Baxter, pp. 195-199. 

Here is a singular group of defects and errors. It 
is an important indication of the inaccuracy of his 






IN RESPECT TO THE WILD BEAST. 105 

views, that they rest for their support on his mere 
advocacy of them. ISTo authentic and decisive proofs 
are alleged by him to verify any one of them. They 
are merely assumed and asserted, not demonstrated ; 
though he professes to found them on the express 
word of God. But beside the omission of legitimate 
proofs, he falls into palpable mistakes on every one 
of the chief points which he advances. 

1. Thus he represents the whole period of Israel's 
dispersion as intervening between the sixty and two 
weeks and the seventieth week; although the ten 
tribes were carried into exile more than seven cen- 
turies and a half before Christ's crucifixion. The 
two tribes were also led captive to Babylon more 
than six hundred years before his death. If Sir 
Edward refers to the dispersion of the Jews by the 
Romans under Titus ; not an hour of that period 
was included in the week in which Christ closed his 
mission on the cross. It was not till near thirty 
years after, that Jerusalem was captured, and those 
who survived the siege were sold into slavery, and 
distributed into different parts of the empire. 

2. He is mistaken in assigning to John the Baptist 
a ministry of three years and a half ; and represent- 
ing it as wholly antecedent to Christ's ministry. 
The period of John's ministry was but about a year 
and a half; and his imprisonment was also for a like 
time, or near that period. Only three years, there- 
fore, intervened between the commencement of his 

4* 



106 WRITERS AGREEING WITH MR. FABER 

mission and his death ; arid two years to two and a 
half of that period were concurrent with Christ's 
ministry.* This misrepresentation is of moment, as 
it is a specimen of the manner in which the facts of 
history are wrested, to suit the exigencies of this 
theory. The object of the statement that John's 
ministry began after the sixty-ninth week had 
reached its end, and that it extended through three 
and a half years, was to open the way for the pretext 
that the death of Christ did not take place till after 
the close of the seventieth week : that he might 
affirm, as he does, that that week was " cancelled 
and blotted out." For if the sixty-ninth week had 
expired, when John began his mission, and Christ's 
ministry began at the termination of his, at the close 
of the first half of the fourth year, and continued till 
the seventh year had passed, as that year was, in the 
order of time, the four hundred and ninetieth, it is 
plain that Christ cannot have been crucified until 
after the seventieth week. But that is in the most 
direct contradiction to the testimony of the Evan- 
gelists, who represent his crucifixion as taking place 
under Pontius Pilate, and in the fourth year before 
that to which that procurator's death is referred by 
the Roman historians ; and therefore in the seventieth 
week. 

3. Some of his expressions imply that he admits 
that the Messiah was in truth put to death ; yet in 

* See Robinson's Harmony of the Gospels, pp. 7-10, and pp. 189, 196. 



IN RESPECT TO THE WILD BEAST. 107 

his denial, on the one side, that his crucifixion took 
place in the week that followed the sixty-ninth ; and 
his assertion on the other, that the preposition after, 
in the expression " and after sixty and two weeks 
shall Messiah be cut off," is indefinite, and does not 
mean, in the seventieth week that directly followed 
the sixty-ninth, he exhibits it as uncertain when his 
death did take place. But that is equivalent to 
representing that we in fact have no evidence that he 
was really put to death. For we have no proof of 
his crucifixion, except that first of the New Testa- 
ment, which refers his death to the reign of Tiberius, 
and the procuratorship of Pontius Pilate, both of 
whom died in the fourth year after the date which 
the Gospels assign to his crucifixion ; and next, of 
later Greek and Roman writers, whose testimony 
renders it clear that his crucifixion took place at the 
close of the first half of his thirty-fourth year ; which 
was the eud of the first half of Daniel's seventieth 
week. To deny or impeach the truth of this repre- 
sentation, is in effect to deny, not only that we have 
any means of determining the date of Christ's cruci- 
fixion, but that we have any certainty that he was 
ever subjected to death on the cross. 

4. He gives no proof of his representation, that the 
prince who he holds is to come at the close of this 
dispensation, is to be a false Messiah • and is to 
present himself to the Jews, and be received by them 
in that character. There is not the slightest intima- 



108 WRITERS AGREEING WITH MR. FABER 

tion in Daniel that the prince who was to come, and 
whose people were to destroy the Sanctuary, and the 
city, was to be a false Messiah, and was to be 
received by them, as their promised Deliverer and 
King. No one could frame a more groundless and 
arbitrary fiction. JSTor is there any intimation in the 
Scriptures, that the eighth king, who is also called 
the beast in its last form, or that the man of Sin and 
Son of perdition, is to be a false Messiah, and to be 
received as such, by either Jews or Gentiles. So far 
from it, that great conspirator is expressly exhibited 
on the one hand, as claiming that he is himself God, 
and exalting himself, as above the Most High ; and 
on the other, as waging a direct war on the Redeemer 
and his armies, in the hope of striking his kingdom 
from the earth. His aim, indeed, is, by extermin- 
ating Christ's party, to prove that there is no Messiah 
of the Jews, nor Saviour of the Gentiles, but that he 
himself holds the supreme dominion of the world. 

I might point out other errors in the passages 
I have quoted ; but the proofs I have given that he is 
involved in the most extraordinary and fatal mistakes 
in all his principal views, are sufficient to show that 
he is at a very unfortunate distance from a just 
knowledge of the subjects he attempts to treat. 

The following passage is from Mr. Kelsall's volume 
on Antichrist, published in 1846 : 

" At first the Prince, Antichrist, makes a treaty or covenant 
with the Jews for one seven, or hebdomad — the last of the 



IN RESPECT TO THE WILD BEAST. 109 

seventy weeks of Daniel ix. 27 ; but after making this seven 
years' covenant, he will break it in the midst, and cause the 
sacrifice and oblation to cease ; after which the period for the 
exercise of his open blasphemy exactly corresponds with the 
time, times and half, of Daniel vii., at the commencement of 
which, the abomination of desolation is to be set up, and 
the worship of him and his image continue until the time of 
fulfillment. The abomination of desolation is probably the 
image, endowed by Satan with the power of speech and breath, 
or life (Rev. xiii. 15). . . . This is the point of time when 
Antichrist breaks his covenant in the midst of seven years, and 
when the two witnesses (Rev. xi. 3) make their appearance in 
Jerusalem. Forty-two months are therefore left for the com- 
pletion of these wonders. About the same time as the two 
witnesses (probably Elias and Moses), there will appear in 
Jerusalem a false prophet, who will be empowered to perform 
astonishing miracles. He will cause an image of Antichrist to 
"be set up in the sanctuary, which by the agency of Satan, he 
will be enabled to endow with life and speech. This image 
seems to be typified in Daniel iii. He will require every man 
to worship this image, and to receive a mark in his forehead, or 
on his right hand, as a token that he acknowledges Antichrist 
as God, and he will cause to be put to death all who refuse to 
receive the mark." — Baxter, pp. 208, 209. 

We have here another exemplification of the wild 
and preposterous manner in which this school of 
writers misrepresent and pervert the Scriptures, in 
order to give their groundless system a color of sup- 
port from their teachings. 

1. After the manner of those I have before quoted, 
he gives not a syllable of confirmation to any one of 
hie statements. They are uttered as though they 



110 WRITERS AGREEING WITH MR. FABER 

were known to be true, beyond the possibility of 
confutation. His simple asseveration is presented as 
a sufficient warrant for the reader's implicit acqui- 
escence in them. If he was in possession of such 
ample evidence that they are taught in the divine 
word, why did he withhold it from those whom he 
addresses, and confine himself to mere, unsupported 
assertion? 

2. He has no authority in the prophecy, for his 
representation, that the Prince who was to come, was 
to make a treaty with the Jews. The language of 
the prophet is : " And he (the Messiah) shall confirm 
the covenant with many for one week." There is no 
intimation that while he was to confirm the covenant — 
which, in order to such an act, must already have 
been in existence — he was also to make another 
covenant with the Jewish people, and therefore in 
respect to a different subject from that which was to 
be verified by fresh proofs of its validity and accept- 
ableness. This notion that a new covenant was to be 
framed, is a mere fiction of the writer. 

3. He has not the slightest ground in the prophecy, 
for his representation that at the end of the^three 
years and a half, or at any other time, the personage 
who was to confirm the covenant, or according to Mr. 
Kelsall, make a new compact, was or is to break it. 
There is not a hint in the passage that the covenant 
that was to be confirmed, was to be broken, either by 
the maker of it, or by the Jewish people. So far 



IN RESPECT TO THE WILD BEAST. Ill 

from it, the language directly precludes the supposi- 
tion of its breach during the week of its verification. 
For it was to be confirmed for one week, that is, for 
the whole, and through the whole of the week ; — not 
merely at its commencement. The confirmation was 
to be for the last half of the week, as absolutely as for 
the first. The representation that the covenant was 
to be broken at the end of three years and a half, is 
thus a sheer fiction, in contravention of the express 
words of the passage. It stamps its authors and pro- 
pagators therefore with the guilt of a deliberate 
interpolation in the text, in order to give it a shape 
that would enable them to employ it as a means of 
verifying their theory. It is not a perversion of its 
words ; but first a rejection of their plain grammatical 
sense ; and then the ascription to them of a predic- 
tion, of which there is not a trace in them. 

4. He falls into an unfortunate error, in regard to 
the image, Rev. xiii. 14, which he affirms is to be 
set up in the Sanctuary in Jerusalem ; and made an 
object of worship. He plainly imagines that that 
image which the two horned beast caused its vassals 
to make, was and is a real material image, that is 
capable of being transported from Italy to Palestine, 
and there set in a temple and made an object of wor- 
ship. ~Eo blunder could bespeak a profounder ignor- 
ance of the nature and meaning of that symbol. The 
image which the two horned beast commanded his 
subjects to make, and which John beheld, was a mere 



112 WRITERS AGREEING WITH MR. FABER 

visionary symbol; framed after the pattern of the 
wild beast of seven heads and ten horns, of ch. xiii. 
1-8 : when under the sway of its seventh head. It 
was an image, the prophet represents to the first wild 
beast whieh was healed of a death wound; that is, it 
was modeled after the shape of that beast in trunk 
and limbs ; and, with an erect and ruling head. And 
it was the symbol of an ecclesiastical organization 
that corresponded in its great outline, to the civil 
government of the empire under its seventh head as 
is seen from the acts of legislation and persecution it 
exerted. What priestly organization then, did the pope 
and his state hierarchy denoted by the two horned 
beast, prompt the population of the ten kingdoms to 
erect, that answered in its general features, to the 
structure of the civil empire, during the reign of Jo- 
vian and his successors to Theodosius ? The reply 
is: The imperial Catholic hierarchy formed of the 
hierarchies of the several kingdoms, by their union 
in one vast structure, with the pope as its head ; 
which rose at length by lies and frauds, to an abso- 
lute supremacy over the empire, and exercised the ty- 
rannical and imperious acts that are ascribed to it by 
the prophet. The worship of this image of the wild 
beast, which the crowd was required to pay, was a 
prostrate acquiescence in the false pretexts of the mon- 
ster — as the minister of God, and virtual ascription, 
to it thereby in its faith and obedience, of the power 
and prerogatives of the Most High which were arro- 



IN RESPECT TO THE WILD BEAST. 113 

gated by it. This mere visionary symbol, which no 
more had a substantive existence on the earth, than 
the wild beast itself, after which it was modeled, Mr. 
Kelsall mistakes for a real material image ; and rep- 
resents that it is to be transported to Jerusalem, and 
installed there in a Jewish temple as an object of 
worship ! . Into what more consummate delusion 
could he have fallen ? What more unpardonable fic- 
tion could he have framed, and endeavored to inter- 
polate in a text which treats exclusively of the great 
and peculiar acts of Christ ? 

5. He has no authority whatever for the represen- 
tation, that the two witnesses are to appear in Pales- 
tine. The prophecy exhibits the empire of the ten 
horned wild beast, and of the image, or imperial 
Catholic hierarchy, as the scene of their testimony 
and slaughter ; and represents their dead bodies as 
lying unburied in the broad place of the great city 
Babylon, which is also the symbol of the imperial 
Catholic hierarchy of the ten kingdoms. 

6. His pretext that at the same time, a false pro- 
phet is to appear at Jerusalem, who will be empow- 
ered to perform astonishing miracles, is an equal 
fiction. There is no prediction in Daniel or John, 
that such a prophet is to present himself in that city 
at the close of the present dispensation. The unclean 
spirits who go forth to the kings to gather them to 
the great battle are to work portents ; but their scene 
is to be the ten kingdoms of the west, and their pe- 



114 WEITEES AGREEING WITH ME. FAEER 

riod anterior to the gathering of the kings and theii 
armies in Palestine. The Man of Sin also, and Son 
of perdition, is to come after the working of Satan, 
with all power and signs and lying wonders ; but his 
chief sphere is also to be at the west. There is no 
intimation in the prophets that a false prophet is to 
appear at Jerusalem immediately before the over- 
throw of Antichrist, and work great miracles for the 
purpose of persuading the Jews to worship an image 
of Antichrist which is to be set up in the temple, and 
which Satan is to u endow with the power of life and 
speech." That monster is a fiction framed by Mr. 
Kelsall, or those from whom he borrowed it, for the 
purpose of embellishing the theory with an unexpect- 
ed prodigy, that should startle the credulous and 
excitable whom they wish to win to faith in their 
theory. 

I add a passage from the Rev. R. A. Purdon, who 
holds that ]S"apoleon Buonaparte was the power sym- 
bolized by the seventh head of the beast ; and that 
Louis Xapoleon is the Antichrist : 

"There can no longer be a doubt that some terrible lesson is 
preparing for the nations of Europe, and that the empire of 
Napoleon is to be revived. We do not speak of the title of em- 
peror ; but the actual empire of Napoleon in its full territorial 
extent. Louis Napoleon has already laid the foundation of his 
power, with a depth and solidity, that is truly superhuman. 
In 1815, Napoleon I. fell, and not only was his empire broken 
up, but his name and family were annihilated in France. . . . 
His nephew has arisen, and struck the record out of the book 



IN EESPECT TO THE WILD BEAST. 115 

of Europe. He has taken up the empire where the allies broke 
it off; .Napoleon is to be again as if he had never ceased to be. 
His name, his empire, his ideas, his principles, his very eagles 
are all to be revived. The interregnum of thirty-five years, is to 
be even as a dream when one awaketh. But perhaps it will be 
said that we are traveling too fast ; that not a particle of the 
empire has yet in May, 1852, been revived. "We believe that 
the revival of the empire is as certain as if it had been already 
effected: that it is predestined, and that the whole creation 
could not prevent it. Louis Napoleon, we believe, will regain 
year after year all the provinces of the fallen empire from North 
to South, and will add to them, what Napoleon I. never could 
do, the Turkish provinces in the east. 

u The eighth head is of the seven ; and as we believe that Na- 
poleon I. was the seventh head, it appears that from his family 
the eighth head will take its rise. . . The deadly wound of 
the seventh head was received, when Napoleon was defeated in 
battle, and sent to die at St. Helena : the healing of the deadly 
wound will be fully accomplished, when his representative and 
nephew, has assumed the dominion of the empire of Napoleon." 
—Baxter, pp. 230, 231. 

These are mere expressions of opinion founded on 
the usurpation of the imperial sceptre by Louis Na- 
poleon in December, 1851 : and the false notion that 
Napoleon Buonaparte was the personage denoted by 
the seventh head of the beast; and thence that Louis 
Napoleon is the eighth head of that symbol : though 
no eighth head is attributed to it in the Apocalypse. 
They are mere repetitions of what had been proclaim- 
ed by Mr. Faber and Mr. Frere thirty to forty years 
before, and frequently reheralded by them and their 



116 WKITERS AGREEING WITH MR. FABER 

followers in the interval, and as often shown by 
events to be mistaken. They are of no significance, 
except as they serve to apprise the reader of the un- 
hesitating confidence with which this school of spec- 
ulatists contemplate their favorite views, and the 
extraordinary facility with which they persuade 
themselves that they find the shapeless births of 
their disordered imaginations, drawn in characters of 
light, on the pages of revelation. 

More than twelve years have passed since Mr. 
Purdon penned the passage I have cited. Yet of his 
confident prognostications that Louis Napoleon was 
to regain every portion of the empire of the first Bu- 
onaparte, that lay out of France ; and to extend his 
conquests also over the Turkish provinces of the 
East — Egypt, Syria, and Mesopotamia, not one has 
been verified. Louis Napoleon has not extended his 
domains to the Bhine ; he has not conquered Italy ; 
neither Spain, nor Portugal has been brought to 
submission to his sceptre. He has not reconquered 
Switzerland. He has not become master of Bavaria. 
Prussia has not been overrun by his armies, and 
crushed into subjection to his rule : nor Austria, Sax- 
ony, or any part of Poland. His only enlargement 
of territory is the acquisition of Nice, and Savoy 
that belonged to Sardinia. His only important wars 
have been for the protection of the Turkish empire 
from the ambitious aims of Russia , and for the lib- 
eration of Italy from the power of Austria and of 



IN EESrECT TO THE WILD BEAST. 117 

Kome, and aiding it to erect itself into an empire 
founded on the will of the people, and characterized 
by religious toleration and free institutions. His 
lawless attempt to conquer Mexico is likely to prove 
unsuccessful. 

What more effective confutation of his sanguine 
predictions could have befallen Mr. Purdon? Yet 
his disappointments have not been greater or more 
disparaging to his foresight, than those that have ren- 
dered the predictions of every other writer of this 
class, the object of ridicule and reprobation, from 
Mr. Faber and Mr. Frere, to those who are now 
building on the same false theories, and repeating 
* the same misrepresentations of the divine word. The 
only event of any moment that has answered to their 
predictions, is the assumption by Louis Napoleon of 
the throne of France, which was known to be medi- 
tated by him, and expected by thousands long before 
it took place or was predicted by Mr. Purdon. Their 
anticipations in regard to the career he was to run, 
have not met with the slightest verification. Their 
faith however in their scheme, instead of being dimin- 
ished by this disastrous experience, appears to retain 
its strength, and utter itself in as loud tones of assur- 
ance, as at any former period ; though every sign 
in the posture of the world is against them, and the 
time itself has advanced to a point at which their 
chronology forbids their looking for a verification of 
their scheme in the future. 



118 WRITERS AGREEING WITH MR. FABER 

This chapter, which orginally closed with the re- 
marks on Mr. Pardon's prognostications, was written 
in August, 1864. Within the last three months, 
events have occurred that change the attitude of 
several of the kingdoms of Europe towards each other 
in a manner that strikes all parties with surprise and 
astonishment; and no one perhaps more than Louis 
Napoleon himself. For while he was affecting to act 
in a degree as the arbiter of events, such a defeat of 
Austria took place, and such a triumph of Prussia, as 
to destroy the balance of power, and create a rival 
that may prove a match for France, and place him 
and his empire, should a conflict arise between them, 
in a measure in jeopardy. 

This was an issue, probably, he had not anticipated. 
He was at least interpreted as assuming that Austria 
and Prussia would be so equally balanced, that the 
effect of their contest with each other would only be 
to exhaust their strength, and sooner or later present 
to him an opportunity to interpose, and dictate to 
them such terms of peace as should so augment his 
power and limit and weaken theirs, as to give him in 
a higher measure than he had before attained, the 
lofty position of master of western Europe. 

When disappointed in this expectation by the 
sudden and far-reaching victories of Prussia, he was 
reported to have been so reluctant wholly to lose the 
prize he had hoped to grasp, that he intimated to the 
court at Berlin, that he should look for a rectification 



IN BESPECT TO THE WILD BEAST. 119 

of the boundary of France, to countervail the large 
accessions Prussia has made to her territory. In 
place, however, of designating, as was asserted, the 
Prussian provinces on the left of the Rhine as the 
object of his wishes, his proposal it is now stated, is 
much more moderate ; contemplating only the cession 
of a small district from Prussia, and a still less 
important transfer from Bavaria and Holland ; and 
this having been declined by Prussia, he is said to 
have acquiesced, and in order to counteract false 
reports, to have intimated that it is not his purpose 
to urge his solicitations by force. 

Whether this is a final relinquishment of a design 
to absorb those or other territories in his empire; 
or is a mere device for a delay that may enable 
him to draw an expression from the French nation 
in favor of war for that domain, and make a 
fuller preparation for the strife, there are yet no 
means of determining. If he absolutely abandons 
the project of annexation by force, or by diplomacy, 
and resigns the purpose of enlarging his territo- 
ry ; that will itself confute the pretext of Faber, 
Frere, Darby, Purdon, Tregelles, Newton, and others, 
that he is to become the imperial chief of the ten 
kingdoms, and the Antichrist who is to conquer the 
Turkish provinces in Syria, restore the Jews, erect 
a temple in Jerusalem, and set himself in it as an 
object of worship. 

If in place of relinquishing his ambitious schemes, 



120 WRITERS AGREEING WITH MR. FABER. 

he merely waits for some crisis in German affairs 
that may favor his plans, and embarks in a war of 
aggrandizement, he cannot be certain of success : he 
may meet a disastrous defeat, and be compelled 
to surrender portions of his territory to Prussia, in- 
stead of appropriating hers to himself: and thereby 
lose his prestige and power in such a degree as may 
prove not only a barrier to other projects of aggres- 
sion, but endanger the stability and perpetuation of 
his throne. 

Should he, however, resume and succeed in a 
purpose- of extending his territory to the Rhine, it 
will prove no verification of Mr. Purdon's prediction 
that he is to expand his dominion over Holland, Bel- 
gium, Saxony, parts of Poland, and other regions in 
that direction ; nor that he is to reconquer Italy, 
Spain and Portugal, and incorporate them in his em- 
pire. Nor should he reduce them all to the condition 
of dependencies, would he thereby present any 
ground for the prognostication that he is to conquer 
the eastern domains of the Turks, become the Anti- 
christ, be the restorer of the Jews, extort a worship 
from his subjects, and perish at Armageddon. What- 
ever else may happen, as the predictions that are to 
be treated in later chapters of this work are unfold- 
ed, it will be seen with the most ample certainty, 
that he is to meet his doom, long before the hour 
arrives when Antichrist reveals himself, and the 
tragedy of the present dispensation reaches its close. 



THE THEORY OF A LEAGUE. 121 



CHAPTEE VI. 

Their Theory of a League by Louis Napoleon with the Jews in reference 
to their Restoration to their National Land — Mr. Baxter's Views of its 
Date — Sir Edward Denny's Statements respecting its Time, and its 
Stipulations — Dr. Tregelles' Views of its Object and Period — Mr. 
Beal's Estimate of its Date, and the Period through which its Engage- 
ments are to extend. 

The first and most important event, according to 
Mr. Baxter and several of the writers whom he cites, 
that is to mark the career of Napoleon III, is to be 
the formation of a league between him and the Jews 
for the period of seven years, in reference to their 
return to their national land. He says : 

" The seven years 1 covenant, which is to be made between 
Louis JSfapoleon and the Jews, exactly seven years and two 
and a half months before the end of this Dispensation, consti- 
tutes the starting 'point of the twenty leading events " (that are 
to signalize that period). 

u During the first three and a half years of the seven, twelve 
out of twenty important events occur. And during the second 
three and a half years of the seven, together with the additional 
two and a half months (Dan. xii. 12), the remaining eight of 
the twenty take place. 

" If the Covenant is made before October in 1863, then the 
seven years and two and a half months will of course extend 
from 1863 to 1870 ; and the first three and a half years will be 
from 1863 to 1866-7; and the second three and a half years 

6 



122 THE THEORY OF A LEAGUE 

with the two and a half months, will be from 1866 to 1870. 
But if the covenant should be made between October 16, 1863, 
and October 16, 1864, then the seven years and two and a half 
months would extend from 1863-4 to 1870-71. The fact of 
1871-2 seeming, from the prophetic dates, to be the end of this 
dispensation, makes it exceedingly probable that the covenant 
will be made in 1864-5 ; but still, if it is made a year or two 
later, the difference will be comparatively small. The evidence 
of the prophetic dates, as well as the circumstance that Louis 
Napoleon will be sixty-four years old in 1872, shows that the 
destruction of Antichrist, at the end of this dispensation, cannot 
be much later than 1872, and consequently the covenant can- 
not be made much later than 1864-5. As it is absolutely certain, 
beyond all possibility of doubt, that Antichrist will be destroyed 
at Armageddon exactly seven years and two and a half months 
after the date of' the covenant, we have only to wait till the 
date of the covenant is ascertained, and shall then know, almost 
to a day, the precise time of the consummation." — Pp. 69, 70. 

The following passage is from Sir Edward Denny : 

" The prince before named, having for the first three and a 
half years of his time reigned in peace over the Jews, he, now 
at the end of that time — that is, in the midst of the week, as we 
here read — throws off the mask and discovers himself. He had 
acted as a deceiver at first ; and now, having compassed his 
object, he shows himself forth as a tyrant. He had set up at 
first, with a view to flatter his subjects, that species of worship 
which only would take with the Jews. But now this is all set 
aside ; he causes the oblation and sacrifice to cease, and for the 
forty-two months, or three years and a half, spoken of in Eeve- 
lation and Daniel, namely, the latter half of the week, he opens 
his mouth in blasphemies against the God of heaven, while he 
at the same time oppresses his people." — Baxter, p. 200. 



BETWEEN LOUIS NAPOLEON AND THE JEWS. 123 

Dr. Tregelles entertains the same views in regard 
to a covenant : 

" And he (the prince who shall come) shall confirm a cove- 
nant with many for one week. . . . He makes a covenant with 
the multitude; that of course means the multitude of Daniel's 
people ; they are leagued with him and he with them. This 
takes place three years and a half before he causes sacrifice and 
oblation to cease ; hence it is clear that they go on, as under 
his patronage, for some time. This will, I believe, throw some 
light upon the two thousand three hundred days mentioned in 
chapter viii. 14. We find him, here, making a covenant for one 
seven years, then breaking it at the end of three years and a 
half; and the removal of sacrifice, etc., is so spoken of, as to 
connect it with the breaking of the covenant. This tends, I 
think, to show that one thing done in pursuance of this cove- 
nant, had been the establishment of the temple worship. The 
period of two thousand three hundred days, is a few months 
short of the whole term of the seven years — enough being 
included, it may be, to be allotted for those preparations, which 
will be needful for the worship to be set up ; then follows the 
time during which it is carried on under his auspices ; and then 
follow three years and a half of distinct persecuting and blas- 
phemous power." — Remarks on Daniel, pp. 103, 104. 

Mr. Baxter states that the author of Armageddon 
" considers that 1862 will most probably be the year 
when Louis Napoleon will make the seven years' 
covenant with the Jews. By Jewish reckoning, 
1862 will not terminate until Nisan or Tisri — about 
April or September, 1863 ; but whenever the cove- 
nant is made, there will be only seven years and two 



124 THE THEOEY OF A LEAGUE 

and a half months to the end or consummation." — 
Baxter, p. 242. 

That this theory is a fabrication, without authority 
from the divine word, and in open antagonism to the 
passage on which its authors profess to found it, one 
would think must be the conviction of all familiar 
with the Scriptures, who catch a true glimpse of its 
features. 

1. If so important a revelation were made in the 
prophecy of Daniel, it would, it may justly be pre- 
sumed, be in the power of these writers to demon- 
strate it in a clear and satisfactory manner. If God 
had chosen to reveal such a group of future events, 
he would have graven them in such intelligible 
characters, that they might be easily and naturally 
read aright. There would be no need of evading 
the question, whether it is directly expressed or not, 
in the grammatical sense of chap. ix. 26, 27; nor 
whether it lies couched under a symbol or symbols, 
in that, or any other part of the prophecy. The very 
first task to which those who embrace and proclaim 
it, would address themselves, would be to unfold the 
words or signs in which it is held that it is embodied, 
and set forth the proofs of its presence there, in a 
clear light. They would shrink from ascribing such 
a prediction to God on the mere ground of their own 
opinion, or of the judgment of other uninspired men. 
They would disdain to offer so gross an offence to 
their readers as to ask them to treat them as though 



BETWEEN LOUIS NAPOLEON AND THE JEWS. 125 

they were authenticated prophets, and receive the 
announcements which they utter, as of as high 
authority as though they were spoken by the lips of 
the Almighty. Yet not a sellable of proof is alleged 
by them of the truth of their representations on this 
subject, either from the prophecy itself, or from any 
other quarter! The whole is left to rest on their 
mere unsupported declarations. There is no pretext 
that there is a symbol, in the passage, in which it is 
enveloped. There is no attempt to unfold the philo- 
logy of the prophecy, and prove that their view of 
its meaning is that which is expressed in its gram- 
matical sense. It stands apart from the passage 
itself, as absolutely as though it were avowedly a pro- 
phecy out of their own heart. This is a sad feature 
of their theory, and places the reader under a direct 
and emphatic obligation, not to yield it his credence, 
until its validity as a revelation from God, is 
verified. 

2. There not only is no direct delineation in chap, 
ix. 26, 27, of such a personage as Louis Napoleon, 
either in fact, or as these writers depict him ; but 
there is nothing in it, that is suited to suggest that he 
is the subject of its prediction, any more than scores 
of other princes and potentates are. The mere fact 
that a prince is foreshown as to come to Judea with 
an army, and destroy the sanctuary and city, is of 
itself no proof that Louis Napoleon is that prince ; 
any more than it is that the son of Jerome Buona- 



126 THE THEOET OF A LEAGUE 

parte, who bears the title of prince ; or the imperial 
prince, the son of Louis Napoleon, is the person to 
whom the prediction refers. And those personages 
are no more entitled to be regarded as the subjects of 
the prediction, than any person of rank is, in Spain, 
in Italy, or in Austria. And in like manner, if the 
great personage of v. 27 is, as these authors affirm, 
the same as the prince of v. 26, there is no more 
ground for the assumption that Louis Napoleon is 
the person of whom it speaks, than there is that any 
one of scores and hundreds of other individuals is 
the party to whom the prediction refers. There is 
nothing in it by which Louis Napoleon can be iden- 
tified as its subject, any more than there is by which 
any other of the numerous princes of the ten king- 
doms who are contemporary with Louis Napoleon 
can be identified as the agent who is to exert the 
acts which it foreshadows. What a slender founda- 
tion for the support of such a lofty fabric ! They 
have nothing but the word _pri?ice, wholly detached 
from its place in the passage, on which to erect their 
towering structure. 

3. There is nothing in the present attitude of Louis 
Napoleon, or the posture of the other monarchies of 
western Europe, that indicates that he is to act the 
part, and within a year or two, which these authors 
predict of him. He is indeed at the head of a great 
and war-like nation, and wields by means of his 
power and policy, a vast influence on the neighbor- 



BETWEEN LOUIS NAPOLEON AND THE JEWS. 127 

ing kingdoms. Yet his aims are for the present pro- 
fessedly conservative and peaceful, rather than 
aggressive. If he desires to extend his empire to the 
Rhine, that, he implies, is the limit of his ambition. 
There are no signs that he intends soon to bring 
Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria, western Germany 
generally, or Great Britain into subjection to his 
sceptre. It is not within the scope of his power, if 
they are true to their own independence ; for united 
they are far stronger than he is ; and they will be 
sure, if we may judge from the events of 1813, 1814, 
and 1815, to, act in concert for their common defence, 
if he should attempt to tread them into submission 
to his will. Nor are there any indications that he is 
soon to extend his conquests over the east, plant his 
palace tent in Judea, and reveal himself there as the 
Antichrist. He could not engage in such an enter- 
prise, without drawing on himself a large part of the 
forces of western and northern Europe. There are 
no events that lie more absolutely out of the sphere 
of likelihood, than that he should in one, two, or 
three years achieve the conquests, and act out the 
vast system of agencies, which these prophets assign 
to him. Western Europe must undergo a greater 
revolution than has ever yet befallen it ; must pass 
through a season of unparalleled anarchy, and be- 
come the victim of a wholly different order of rulers, 
than has hitherto determined its destinies, before an 
imperial chief like Napoleon can grasp its throne, 



128 THE THEORY OF A LEAGUE 

and run the career in the east which these authors 
assign to him. 

4. The sole ground on which their persuasion re- 
specting Louis Xapoleon rests, is the false and pre- 
posterous theory fabricated by Mr. Faber, and Mr. 
Frere, that Xapoleon Buonaparte was the personage 
symbolized by the seventh head of the wild beast ; 
and that Louis Kapoleon, on his seizure of the scep- 
tre of France, either took the place of Xapoleon 
Buonaparte as the person denoted by that head, or 
else was symbolized by an eighth head of the same 
monster, and is the power represented by the beast 
in its last form. But as I have shown that that 
theory is a mere fiction, without any authority either 
from the word of God, or the facts of history, their 
prognostications respecting the offices Louis Napo- 
leon is to fill, and the portentous agencies he is to 
exert, are left without any ground whatever, except 
the crude and delirious vaticinations of their own 
minds. If their theory could not be directly refuted 
by the word of God and the events of his providence 
and the agency of man, it would, from its total want 
of evidence, be wholly unentitled to credence. 

5. But we have the most decisive proof of their 
error in the consummate misrepresentations of the 
passage, chap. ix. 27, to which they resort to give it 
the air of supporting their theory. They exhibit the 
first act, which they hold is there foreshown of Louis 
Napoleon, as making a covenant, or entering into a 



BETWEEN LOUIS NAPOLEON AND THE JEWS. 129 

league with the Jews. They use the word make, 
made, or some equivalent term, signifying that the 
covenant or league is to be projected and formed at 
the beginning of the seven years through which its 
stipulations are to extend. That is the language 
employed by Dr. Tregelles. " He makes a covenant 
with the multitude ; that of course means, the multi- 
tude of Daniel's people ; they are leagued with him, 
and he with them. This takes place three years and 
a half before he causes sacrifices and oblations to 
cease ; hence it is clear that they go on as under his 
patronage for some time." But that is not the true 
rendering of the word. The act affirmed in respect 
to the covenant, is the act of confirming it ; and im- 
plies therefore that the covenant itself was already 
in existence before that act was exerted. The verb 
denotes, to give strength, to render firm ; and thence 
exhibits that to which the strength and firmness are 
given, as already in being. And when the verb is 
applied to a compact, or covenant that is shown to be 
unalterable by the very act that is exerted in respect 
to it, it means to confirm it ; that is, to verify it, fulfill 
it, and demonstrate its truth and power, by carrying 
its pledges into effect. To strengthen and confirm a 
covenant, is to make it sure that it is to continue to 
be what it is ; not to alter it, or make a new cove- 
nant. These writers, therefore, in treating the pas- 
sage as though it foreshowed that a covenant never 
before instituted was to be made at the time referred 

6* 



130 THE THEORY OF A LEAGUE 

to, in place of being ratified and shown to be autho- 
ritative and unfailing, by its being fulfilled, totally 
misrepresent the transaction ; and thereby overthrow 
their whole theory respecting it. For if the cove- 
nant is not to be made by the agent who is to exert 
the act affirmed respecting it, but being already in ex- 
istence, is only to be confirmed ; then it is clear that 
Louis Napoleon is not to fill the office these parties 
ascribe to him : he is not to originate the project of 
returning the Jews to their ancestral land ; he is not 
to frame a league with them in regard to their migra- 
tion to Palestine, and re-establishment there as an 
independent people ; he at most, is only to confirm 
and carry into eifect, what some one who preceded 
him had engaged to perform. But neither Napoleon 
Buonaparte, nor any other monarch of France, who 
preceded Louis Napoleon, entered into any such 
covenant with the Jews, and left it as an inheritance 
to him. Their whole scheme thus falls hopelessly to 
the ground. 

6. But they perpetrate a still more flagrant out- 
rage on the passage, in representing it as affirming 
that the agent who is to confirm the covenant, is in 
the middle of the week to break it. There is not a 
syllable in the passage, intimating or implying that 
the covenant is to be broken at the middle of the 
week ; or at any other time. So far from it, the ex- 
press language of the prediction is : " And he shall 
confirm the covenant with many for one weelc" that 



BETWEEN LOUIS NAPOLEON AND THE JEWS. 131 

is, for the whole of the week : not simply at its be- 
ginning and first half, but as absolutely through its 
last half, as through its first. This representation 
that the league is to be broken by the agent who con- 
firms it, and all its just and benign provisions set at 
nought, is thus a stark interpolation fabricated by 
these writers against the clearest meaning of the pas- 
sage, and in order to open the way for the represen- 
tation which they build on it : that Louis Napoleon 
is to perpetrate a breach of his own compact, in order 
that he may act the part of the Man of Sin, and of 
Antichrist, which they ascribe to him. What an 
expedient to give a color of probability to a theory, 
which they have reared, to draw the credulous and 
fanatical to fheir train ! 

7. Who then is the personage who was to confirm 
the covenant with many for one week, and in the 
midst of the week cause sacrifice and oblation to 
cease ? 

Not Louis Napoleon ; first, because he did not come 
into existence, till near eighteen hundred years after 
the confirmation of the covenant took place, and the 
legitimate offering of sacrifices ceased. Next, because 
the time assigned by these writers to the formation 
of the covenant, has passed without any accomplish- 
ment of their predictions. They have represented in 
a very confident manner, that the formation of the 
imagined league, was to take place in 18G2, 1863, 
1801, or 1865. Those years have passed, and no sig- 



132 THE THEORY OP A LEAGUE 

nal has appeared of any compact or negotiation, be- 
tween Xouis Xapoleon and the Jews in regard to 
their migration to the holy land under his auspices. 
They have referred the formation of the treaty to those 
years, moreover, on the ground of the chronology 
on which they proceed, in all their constructions of 
the prophecy, and in conformity with which they 
affirm that the present dispensation is to terminate in 
1868 to 1872. By their own calculations of periods, 
therefore, their theory in respect to Louis Kapoleon 
is hopelessly overthrown. And thirdly, because the 
whole ground on which they found their prognosti- 
cations in respect to him, is a wild and senseless fiction, 
as I have shown, at war with the divine word, and 
in utter disregard of the indubitable truths of 

CD 

history. 

Xor was Titus the personage who was to confirm 
the covenant. He was the Itoman prince, whose 
office was simply to go to Jerusalem with his hosts, 
destroy the sanctuary and city ; and sweep away the 
Jewish nation as with a flood ; for those great acts 
are the only acts that are foreshown of him ; and 
their date was more than thirty years after the con- 
firmation of the covenant, and the discontinuance of 
legitimate sacrifice and the close of the seventieth 
week. 

Who then was the great being who was to confirm 
the covenant with many for one week ; and in the 
midst of the week during which the covenant was 



BETWEEN LOUIS NAPOLEON AND THE JEWS. 133 

kept in unfailing strength and effectiveness, cause 
sacrifice and oblation to cease ? The answer is : 
The great Messenger of the Covenant who, it was fore- 
shown in Malachi, ch. iii. 1, was at the period to which 
the prediction relates, to appear in the temple, and re- 
veal himself to his true people. The covenant was the 
covenant of God with Adam, Abraham, Moses, and 
the whole Israelitish nation, respecting the redemp- 
tion of men by the obedience and blood of the Mes- 
siah : and accordingly he was recognized as that 
messenger by Mary, Elizabeth, Zacharias, and at his 
presentation at the temple by Simeon, and Anna 
under the promptings of the Holy Spirit ; and during 
his ministry and subsequently to his resurrection, by 
tens of thousands of that people. And he filled the 
great office ascribed to him in v. 27. lie confirmed 
the covenant to those who listened to his voice during 
the three years and a half of his ministry, by announ- 
cing himself as the Son of God who had come to take 
away the sin of the world ; by promising eternal life 
to all who believed on him ; by working innumerable 
miracles, by which he demonstrated his deity ; and 
at length, by dying on the cross to make expiation 
for sin. He confirmed it also, after his death, by 
his resurrection, by commissioning his disciples to 
preach the glad tidings of redemption through his 
blood ; and by pouring out the Holy Spirit and re- 
newing a great multitude of the Jews, and giving 
them assurance of their interest in his salvation by 



134 THE THEORY OP A LEAGUE 

the supernatural knowledge and miraculous powers, 
with which they were endowed. This confirming of 
the covenant with many of that people, continued 
through three years and a half; when his disciples 
were directed no longer to confine the proffer of 
salvation to them, but to proclaim it also to the 
Gentiles. 

It was, in consequence, accordingly, of this confir- 
mation of the covenant which he accomplished by 
his ministry and death, that in the midst of the week 
he caused the sacrifice and oblation to cease. As he 
whom the sacrificial offerings typified had come and 
wrought the expiation by his blood which their 
blood foreshadowed, there was no longer a necessity 
for the presentation of animal sacrifices. And we 
find in fact, that after his resurrection those offer- 
ings were discontinued by his disciples. Not a hint 
appears in the Gospels, the Acts, or the Epistles that 
a solitary victim was presented by any believer, 
after his crucifixion. 

All that is foreshown in this verse, thus had a full 
and a sublime verification in him. It must, there- 
fore, be taken as its true fulfillment, and the only 
fulfillment it is to receive. To deny it, is to deny 
that acts and the only acts that correspond to the 
prediction have any title to be considered as its 
accomplishment : and that is to turn the prophecy 
into a mockery. What more shocking desecration 
of the passage can be conceived, than to. strike from 



BETWEEN LOUIS NAPOLEON AND THE JEWS. 135 

it the Bedeemer, as those writers do, and substitute 
in his place, in the greatest and most gracious acts 
of his life and death — a mere man, whom these very- 
authors depict as being, and to be, the greatest mon- 
ster that ever strode the earth ! 

8. That the confirmation of the covenant, and the 
abrogation of sacrifice and oblation, took place in 
the last half of the seventieth week, is made certain 
by the indication in v. 27, that the entrance of the 
abomination of desolation into the courts of the tem- 
ple, which Christ expressly foreshowed was to precede 
the siege of the city, was to take place after the end 
of the seventieth week. Verse 27, accurately trans- 
lated, is the following : " And he shall confirm the 
covenant with many for one week ; and in the middle 
of the week shall cause sacrifice and oblation to cease. 
And over the wing (the battlement) shall come the 
abomination of desolation ; and that which is decreed, 
shall — until the full accomplishment — be poured upon 
the desolated." Here the order of the predictions 
shows clearly that the entrance of the abomination 
of desolation into the holy place — the courts sur- 
rounding the temple — was to take place at a later day 
than the confirmation of the covenant and discon- 
tinuance of sacrifices. And Christ accordingly, fore- 
warned his disciples that the presence of the abomi- 
nation of desolation in the holy place, would be a 
token that the destruction of the city was nigh ; and 
enjoined them immediately to flee to the mountains. 



13G THE THEORY OP A LEAGUE 

He foretold also that the approach of armies toward 
the city from different directions, was to be a sign of 
its speedy destruction, and a warning to them to flee 
from it. These predictions thus show, in the clearest 
manner, that the abomination of desolation was to 
gain a place in the temple courts, before the siege of 
the city began ; as otherwise the disciples of Christ 
would hare been precluded from flight to the moun- 
tains. And this fact indicates with equal certainty, 
that the abomination of desolation was introduced 
into the sacred courts, by the Jews themselves, and 
while they held unobstructed possession of the city. 

What then was the abomination of desolation ; that 
is, execrable wickedness, or pollution, that drew after 
it the destruction of the temple and city? It w T as 
undoubtedly the seizure and occupation of the courts 
of the temple, by the vast crowd of robbers and 
assassins, who formed the party called Zealots, who 
converted it into a fortress, and made it the scene of 
the most bloody and the most impious crimes. 
Josephus himself put that construction on it ; for he 
relates in his account of the horrible excesses of those 
infuriated desperadoes, that it was foreshown in an 
ancient oracle, that the abomination of desolation 
was to be the work of the Jews. And he exhibits 
Ananus the high priest, as lamenting in an address 
to the people, that the temple and courts were dese- 
crated by that infuriate mob, who penetrated into 
the innermost recesses of the temple, and made that 



BETWEEN LOUIS NAPOLEON AND THE JEWS. 137 

edifice and the courts, the scene of the most revolt- 
ing pollution. Bel. Jud., Book iv. c. 3, 10. Jose- 
phus also distinctly represents that sacrilegious appro- 
priation of the temple to the most impious uses, as 
taking place before the siege of the city by Titus 
began. Bel. Jud., BooJc iv. c. 6. 3. iv. 5. 2. 

But what was the wing over which the abomina- 
tion was to enter into the sacred enclosure 1 It was 
doubtless a wing or battlement of the temple court. 
Tacitus represents the collonades, or porticos with 
which the courts were surrounded as excellent bul- 
warks. They scaled those barriers, perhaps, or made 
breaches in them, by which they could have access 
to the temple courts, without obstruction, when the 
gates of the inclosure were shut. 

It is clear then, from the passage itself, from the 
forewarnings by Christ, and from the testimony of 
the Jewish historian, that the abomination of desola- 
tion was introduced into the holy place a short time 
before the siege of the city by Titus was commenced ; 
that it was the work of the Jews themselves ; and 
that the horrible desecration of the temple and its 
courts by the sacrilegious mob called Zealots, was 
interpreted at the time by some of the Jews, as the 
fulfillment of this prophecy by Daniel. It is abun- 
dantly certain therefore that the perpetration of that 
atrocious outrage on the temple of God, is not, as 
these writers persuade themselves, reserved to Louis 
Napoleon. It had its accomplishment more than 



138 



THE THEORY OF A LEAGUE. 



thirty years after the close of Daniel's seventieth 
week ; and in a form far more impious and appalling 
than could have been conceived before the bloody 
and heaven-daring acts of the Jews which it denoted, 
were perpetrated. 



THEIR DENIAL THAT DANIEL IX. 24, ETC. 139 



CHAP TEE VII. 

These Writers deny that Christ's Work foreshown (Daniel ix. 24) has 
been Wrought, and affirm that it is yet Future — Mr. Baxter's and Dr. 
Tregelles' Views— Rev. B. W. Newton's Statements. 

These authors allege that the predictions (Daniel 
ix. 24) respecting Christ's work, in putting a bar to 
transgression, in sealing sin, in making expiation, 
and in bringing in everlasting righteousness, were 
not fulfilled in his ministry and death at his first 
advent, but are still future, and are to meet their 
accomplishment at his second coming. Mr. Baxter 
states his views of the postponement of his work, 
originally assigned to the week that immediately fol- 
lowed the sixty-ninth, to a future period, in the fol- 
lowing passage : 

"The true explanation of this prophecy (Dan. ix. 24-27) 
appears to he that seventy weeks or years were marked off as 
the period of God's dealings with the Jews while nationally 
gathered in their own city, and were to end with their complete 
redemption and deliverance, as described in verse 24. Had the 
Jews received the Messiah, when he officially came to them at 
the end of the sixty-nine weeks by the Baptist's preaching, and 
by his own public ministry, then apparently the seventieth 
week would have followed continuously, and would have closed 
with the Son of David reigning over the house of Jacob forever. 



140 THEER DENIAL THAT DANIEL IX. 24, 

But their rejection of Jesus caused the fulfillment of the seven- 
tieth week to be postponed, until they should be fully punished 
for that sin, and then the seventieth week, after running its 
course, will end as originally intended, with the setting up of 
Messiah's kingdom over Israel, and the bringing in of everlast- 
ing righteousness. Thus Israel's rejection has interposed 
between the sixty-ninth and seventieth week, the long interval 
of the Gentile dispensation, during which they are punished by 
their house being left unto them desolate." — Baxter, pp. 
177, 178. 

1. No proof is alleged by him, it should be noticed, 
of the truth of this representation.. It is left to rest 
on his mere testimony. Was not such a novel and 
portentous proposition entitled to be accompanied by 
some evidence that it has the sanction of the divine 
word ? Are the most momentous revelations God 
has made, thus to be set aside by a mere stroke of 
Mr. Baxter's pen ? 

2. He is, however, mistaken, and in a most cen- 
surable form. What ground has he for assuming 
that the prediction (v. 27) was conditioned for its 
fulfillment on the obedience of the Jewish people to 
the call of Christ % There is no hint to that effect in 
the prophecy. What better reason has he. for such 
an assumption in respect to verse 27, than he has in 
regard to verses 24 and 26 ? He certainly has none. 
Such a pretext would be no more arbitrary, nor more 
destructive of the certainty of the predictions of those 
verses, than it is of the prediction of this. That pre- 
tence is, in fact, alleged by Mr. Baxter and others of 



HAS BEEN FULFILLED. 141 

this school of writers. As therefore it assumes that 
none of the acts and events of Christ's mission which 
they foreshow have taken place — inasmuch as the 
Jews, as Mr. Baxter avers, did not receive, but 
rejected him ; it implies that the whole work of 
redemption remains unaccomplished. What an issue 
for one who professes a knowledge of the prophecy 
so far in advance of most who study it, that they will 
be startled and overwhelmed with shame, when the 
light of its true meaning which he has attained 
breaks upon their eyes ! 

3. The predictions of the events that were to take 
place in the seventieth week, most certainly were 
not contingent on the acceptance of Christ by the 
Jewish people ; but were absolute, like all other pro- 
phecies, and contemplated his rejection and crucifixion 
in the exact manner in which they took place. " Him 
being delivered by the determinate counsel and fore- 
knowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked 
hands have crucified and slain." — Acts ii. 23. That 
all the acts which it was foreshown men were to 
exert toward him, such as despising him, rejecting, 
mocking, and scourging him, and putting him to 
death, were predicted as infallibly certain, is clear, 
from the fact that the new Testament contains a 
record of their fulfillment, and express recognitions 
of them as verifications of those predictions. There 
is a like record of the accomplishment in Christ's 
birth, ministry, and death, of all the great acts and 



142 THEIR DENIAL THAT DANIEL IX. 24, 

events that are foreshown in the old Testament of 
him ; and it is stated in regard to many of them, that 
they took the forms they bore, that they might be 
fulfillments of what had been predicted by the 
ancient prophets. To deny that those acts and events 
were accomplishments of the predictions in which 
they were foreshown, is to deny that actions and 
events that correspond to predictions, have any title 
to be considered as fulfillments of them ; and that is 
to deny that either predictions or fulfillments have 
any certainty, and overthrow all ground for faith in 
the word of God. 

4. Mr. Baxter, in representing that the events fore- 
shown of Christ's life, and the acts of men toward 
him, were contingent ; and that the Jews might have 
received him, and thereby given rise to an adminis- 
tration wholly different from the present, and that 
would have led to a like difference in the conditions 
and actions of men ; implies that there was no intrin- 
sic necessity that Christ should be subjected to the 
humiliations, wants, sorrows, and sufferings that 
formed the great features of his life, and which the 
Scriptures and reason testify were requisite to the 
perfection of his obedience and expiation. He was 
made perfect, we are taught, through suffering. It 
was the great obstacles he had to encounter in the 
unbelief, aversion, and enmity of men, and in the 
power and malice of Satan, that put his allegiance to 
a decisive test, and raised his obedience to an inten- 



HAS BEEN FULFILLED. 143 

sity, greatness and grandeur that suited his office, as 
the Redeemer, and rendered his righteousness and 
expiation adequate for the pardon and justification 
of sinners. But this great fact, which appears in the 
most conspicuous form in every part of his life, 
Mr. Baxter overlooks, and in effect, assumes that an 
unsuffering and untried Messiah might, as far as his 
acts and endurances were concerned, have wrought a 
redemption of the world, as well as one that was 
tested and found invincible in his rectitude under the 
most numerous and most crushing temptations. 
What error could bespeak in louder tones the utter 
truthlessness of his theory, or indicate in a more 
decisive form his sheer inacquaintance with the great 
principles on which the work of redemption pro- 
ceeds ? 

5. Instead of contemplating it as possible that the 
Jewish people might spontaneously receive him, and 
supercede the necessity of his obeying and dying in 
their behalf; Christ proceeded in his work on the fact 
that the race which he came to save, were in revolt, 
and engaged in open war against him, and could be 
reclaimed from sin and death only by his meeting 
the trials and bearing the sufferings that filled up his 
life, and thereby opening the way for the employ- 
ment of the requisite agency of the Spirit and of 
the word, to bring them to repentance and faith. 

Mr. Baxter thus fails in the reasons he gives for the 
postponement of the seventieth week througli eighteen 



14A THEIK DENIAL THAT DANIEL IX. 24, 

hundred years, and evinces, by his great errors, the 
nntenableness of his scheme. I cite another passage 
from him : 

" That the seventieth week is hitherto unfulfilled, clearly 
appears from reading in their strictly consecutive order the 
verses containing the prophecy. Seventy weeks are cut off, as a 
period, which with respect to the Jewish people, and their city 
Jerusalem, is to terminate with the finishing of the transgres- 
sion, the making an end of sins, the bringing in of everlasting 
righteousness, and the anointing of the holy place. . . . All 
this cannot have been completely fulfilled with respect to 
Jerusalem and the Jews at the crucifixion ; for Jerusalem has 
ever since been desolate, and the sins of the Jews have been 
had in especial remembrance ; but it will be fulfilled at the 
restoration and conversion of the Jews, after the second 
advent."— P. 178. 

This is an important passage, from the light it 
throws on their views of the nature of the acts which 
they hold are foreshown in the 24th verse. Nothing 
can be clearer than that they do not regard them as 
the acts of Christ in rendering obedience and dying 
for the expiation of sin ; but hold them to be acts simply 
by which his work, whatever else it was when he was 
on the earth, is to be made available to the redemption 
of the Israelitish people at his second coming. I add 
a passage from Dr. Tregelles, in which the same 
view is expressed : 

" The various things spoken of in verse 24, to finish the trans- 
gression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for 



HAS BEEN FULFILLED. 145 

iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, are all, I 
believe, future. I do not regard any of them as referring 
strictly to the work of Christ upon the cross, (although we as 
believers in him, know that many of these things have a blessed 
application to us,) but it rather appears to me that they all 
belong to the time of Israel's blessing, when the preciousness 
of the blood of Christ shall be applied to those who are spared 
of them." — Remarks on Daniel, p. 97. 

The same views are expressed by the Rev. B. W. 
Newton. 

" The time of the devastation of Jerusalem by Eoman armies, 
was not a period of which it could be said, that her sins were 
forgiven, and everlasting righteousness brought in. On the 
contrary it was a period when her sins were had in remem- 
brance, and in consequence thereof, her people were led away 
captive into all nations, and scattered toward the four winds of 
heaven. But an hour is coming, when the blood of atonement 
that has been already shed, shall be applied to repentant Israel, 
when the veil shall be taken from their heart, and they shall 
recognize him whom they have despised, as being Jehovah their 
righteousness." — Aids to Prophetic Inquiry , p. 135. 

There is thus in these writers a direct and unhesi- 
tating representation, that the predictions, Dan. ix, 
24, respecting Christ's work, in shutting up trans- 
gression, sealing sin, making reconciliation for ini- 
quity, and bringing in everlasting righteousness, 
were not fulfilled in his life, ministry and death, 
at his first advent ; but are still future, and are to 
meet their accomplishment at his second coming. 
Their views, however, are wholly mistaken, and 

7 



146 THEIR DENIAL THAT DANIEL IX. 24, 

fraught with errors of the most reprehensible and 
fatal character. 

1. This, like the other points in their system, which 
I have thus far controverted, is left without any 
proofs of its truth. One might naturally presume 
that in advancing a belief so extraordinary, and 
involving such portentous implications respecting 
the whole administration of the Most High, they 
would deem it due to the divine word itself, and to 
the rights of their readers, to make a full exposition 
of the grounds on which, they hold, it has an indubit- 
able basis. If they build on philology, why should 
they not prove by examples, that the terms of the 
passage do not denote the great acts of obedience and 
expiation, they are usually held to express; but 
instead, signify, as they maintain, the application of 
Christ's sacrificial work to men by the renewing and 
faith-inspiring power of the Holy Spirit? If they 
build, not on words, but on the great principles and 
measures of the divine government, why do they not 
state those principles and measures, and show how 
they legitimately lead to such a construction of the 
passage ? Not a syllable, however, do they give in 
explanation and j ustification of their procedure. They 
announce the import they assign to the prediction, as 
though nothing but their judgment was necessary to 
settle its meaning. 

2. The reason that they offered no proofs from 
philology to sustain their construction, doubtless 



HAS BEEN FULFILLED. 147 

was, that it has no ground in the language of the 
prophet, but is utterly foreign to its genuine and es- 
tablished sense. This will be seen with the most 
ample certainty from a simple exposition of its several 
expressions. " Seventy weeks are cut off (from other 
time) Upon thy people, and upon thy holy city." 
This implies that that period was to be signalized by 
acts and allotments by God, and actions by men, 
that were to lead on to the consummation that was to 
be reached in the seven tietli week. 

The next clause announces the first element of that 
great work to which all that had gone before was pre- 
paratory. " Seventy weeks are cut off," to shut up, re- 
strain, or put a barrier to transgression : that is, to inter- 
cept it from immediately generating the penal effects 
to which it exposes the guilty ; and that is one of the 
most essential functions of expiation. Such is unques- 
tionably the sense of the words, whether we render 
the verb by the terms, shut up, or by the word re- 
strain. The object of the act denoted by the verb is 
transgression, a violation of law that is already in 
being, and the aim of the act is to shut up ; — that is, 
arrest, and put a barrier to transgression, by which it 
shall be intercepted for a time at least, from its legal 
effect in generating a penalty to him who committed 
it. Every individual who is spared from instant pun- 
ishment partakes of this benefit. It thus is not the 
sinner who is the object of shutting up or restraining, 
but sin itself, by the guilt of which he is held. 



14:8 THEIR DENIAL THAT DANIEL IX. 24, 

The next expression is, " To seal sin :" tliat is, to 
stamp it as being what it is, and what it is contem- 
plated by the divine law — namely, as guilty, and 
meriting the punishment God denounces on it ; and 
as inexpiable, except by the blood of the Son of God ; 
as a document is stamped by a seal, which shows it 
to be what the law represents it as being. This is 
the only sense the act of sealing will here bear. The 
object of sealing sin is not to ratify it and declare it 
to be legitimate and in harmony with law. Such a 
testimony would be false, and contradictious to the 
aims with which Christ undertook and wrought the 
work of redemption. The office of sealing sin was to 
identify and put a mark upon it, as being what it is 
declared to be in the prohibitions and in the penal- 
ties of the law. And here, as before, the object of 
the act is, not the sinner, but the sin which he has 
committed. 

The third expression is, " To expiate sin," or to ren- 
der the verb according to its literal meaning in the 
original text, " to cover sin," so as to hide it from 
sight and preclude it from being imputed and avenged ; 
the verb cover being employed by the Israelites by a 
figure from the similarity of the effect, to denote 
expiation — that is, atonement, satisfaction for a crime, 
so that it should no longer be avenged nor imputed. 
This is the clear and only sense the term will bear. 
The act of expiation, covering and removing the 
guilt of sin, is thus wholly different from the act of 



HAS BEEN FULFILLED. 149 

shutting it up, or precluding it for a time from giving 
birth to the penalty which it deserves ; and wholly 
different from sealing sin, by which it is identified 
and stamped as being what it is in its nature and de- 
merit. In this instance also, sin is the object of the 
expiating act, not the sinner, who is the author of the 
sin. The three acts thus form a gradation. Trans- 
gression is first intercepted from giving birth to the 
penalty, to which the sinner is obnoxious ; next sin is 
stamped with a mark which shows that God regards 
it as of the guilt which he ascribes to it in his law ; 
and lastly, an expiation is made for it, by which it is 
blotted out, that the sinner may be released from its 
penalty. 

The act that is next expressed is : "To bring forth 
everlasting righteousness," that is, to render and 
manifest a full and spotless obedience that was to be 
the ground of the Messiahs own acceptance in his 
work, and of the free and fall justification of those 
who, believing on him, and confiding in him, are 
made partakers of his salvation. And this is as es- 
sential a part of his work as the expiation of their 
sins was, which he made by his death. Christ is ac- 
cordingly denominated " Jehovah our righteousness." 
No one will question the truth of this exposition. 
Christ is the being who exercised and displayed the 
righteousness ; and the righteousness itself is wholly 
distinct from the sinner, to whom it is made the 
ground of justification. 



150 THEIR DENIAL THAT DANIEL IX. 24, 

Next follows the expression : " To seal vision and 
prophecy :" that is, to stamp them as truthful, and 
verify them, by fulfilling them, as a document is 
shown to be genuine, and authoritative by a seal that 
bespeaks its authenticity and truthfulness. This is 
unquestionably the meaning of putting a seal on 
vision and prophecy. It does not denote, as some 
have imagined, to shut up prophecy as in an impen- 
etrable envelope, or to draw an impervious veil over 
vision, that its symbols may not be seen, nor its 
voices heard. The object of a seal is to give author- 
ity and perpetuity to the document to which it is 
affixed ; not to debar those whose prerogatives and 
interests it concerns, from opening, reading, and 
accepting its contents. The design of the seals on 
the Apocalyptic scrolls, was not to intercept Christ 
from opening them till the contents of the scrolls 
were to be disclosed to the eyes of creatures ; but 
instead, it is expressly intimated, to show that it per- 
tained to him alone, to break the seals, and send 
forth the symbols : not to creatures, who were 
neither able to open the book nor look on the daz- 
zling characters in which its revelations were written. 

The last clause of the verse is : " And to anoint 
a Holy of Holies ;" that is, to consecrate the heavenly 
sanctuary in which he was to present his blood, and 
offer his intercessions. And this great act was conse- 
quent on the acts previously specified, and imme- 
diately followed his ascension to heaven, after his 



HAS BEEN FULFILLED. 151 

resurrection, and the revelation of himself to his dis- 
ciples ; for he entered on his priestly office when he 
ascended to the heavenly temple, and sat down at 
the right hand of God ; and he now there, makes in- 
tercession for us. Rom. viii. 34 ; Heb. vii. 25-28. 

This delineation of the work of Christ in his life 
and death, is thus one of the most specific, the most 
comprehensive, and the most lofty that is anywhere 
drawn by the pen of inspiration. "What a height 
and depth of meaning is comprised in the expression, 
to shut up, restrain, or put a bar to transgression, by 
reprieving the sinner from its avenging power, so 
that he may enjoy a period of probation, before he 
is summoned to judgment ? What a breadth of signi- 
ficance lies couched in the words, "And to seal sin ;" 
that is, to put a mark on it in the eyes of all crea- 
tures, that shows it to be what God represents it in 
his law ; as unspeakably guilty, forfeiting all good, 
deserving death which is made its penalty, and inex- 
piable, except through the obedience and blood of a 
divine Redeemer? What expression could the 
Father have given of his sense of the evil of sin, that 
could have surpassed that which he made in surren- 
dering his Son to the humiliation and suffering that 
were essential to its expiation ? What other proof 
could the eternal Word have given to the universe, 
that he regards it as worthy of the doom which God 
pronounces on it, that could equal in greatness and 
awfulness that which he presented in stooping to 



152 THEIE DENIAL THAT DANIEL IX. 21, 

take on himself our nature, and bear our sins on the 
cross? At that great spectacle there was not a 
bosom in God's vast kingdom, that did not throb 
with the profoundest feeling that sin is indeed what 
God declares it to be, in malevolence and demerit. 
And what vivid realizations must have filled every 
heart, that the obedience of Christ was a glorious 
and perfect obedience for his own justification, and 
for the justification of those who accept him as their 
Saviour, and that his death in the place of the sinner 
was a full expiation for sin ; — all that the righteous- 
ness of God demanded ; all that the necessities of the 
guilty required ; all that was needful to the well- 
being of the universe ? And what immeasurable 
significance lies in the concluding stroke in the pic- 
ture, " To anoint a Holy of Holies ;" that is, conse- 
crate the scene in the heavenly realms, of which the 
Holy of Holies in the temple on earth wa3 the type, 
Heb. ix. 11; where Christ presented his blood, and 
offers his intercessions ? There is not a group of 
thoughts in the whole circle of inspiration, that 
transcends this in the truthfulness, fullness, and gran- 
deur of the portraiture it presents of the work of the 
Redeemer. 

The evidence is decisive, therefore, that these 
writers are wholly in error, in denying that this pas- 
sage is predictive of Christ's great work in obeying 
and suffering in his life and death at his first advent, 
and maintaining that the acts which it foreshows are 



HAS BEEN FULFILLED. 153 

still future, and are to be exerted by him at his 
second coming. 

3. They not only reject its true meaning, and 
ascribe to it a foreign and false import ; but they 
completely change the subjects of the principal pre- 
dictions, by striking out the objects of the acts that 
are foreshown, and substituting a different entity in 
their place, and thereby convert the prophecy into a 
consummate solecism. Thus the object of the first 
three of the predicted acts, are transgression and sin. 
Transgression was to be intercepted from working 
the immediate destruction of the offender : and sin 
was first to be branded with a mark that should be- 
speak its awful evil and desert of punishment ; and 
then to be expiated so that it could justly be forgiven, 
and the sinner released from its penalty. But these 
objects of those great acts these writers discard ; and 
substitute in their place the sinner himself, as that 
on which the acts expend their energy. But that 
entirely alters the nature of the prophecy, and con- 
verts it into a monstrosity. Thus, to shut up, re- 
strain, or put a bar on a sinner, would be simply to 
intercept him from acting, and bring him as an agent 
to a stand ; just as to put a bar to sin, would be to 
prevent it from giving birth to the penal effects that 
naturally spring from it. It would not be, as these 
writers perhaps imagine, to turn the sinner from sin- 
ning to obedience; but merely to stop him from act- 
ing at all ; for though the object of the verb is 

7* 



154: THEIR DENIAL THAT DANIEL IX. 24 



changed by them, the meaning of the verb itself 
remains what it was before ; and denotes the abso- 
lute interception of that on which its force is ex- 
pended, from the species of effects to which it would 
otherwise continue to give birth. But thus to sus- 
pend all the active functions of the sinner, would be 
to prevent him from knowledge, repentance, love, 
and faith, as completely as it would from sinning, 
and would place him, while that syncope remained 
on him, out of the possibility of salvation. Such is 
the first result to which their change of the objects 
of the verbs, leads. 

Next, " To seal sinners," would be to fix on them 
a mark bespeaking them to be what they are in the 
sight of God, guilty, lost, and doomed to death ; and 
thereby indicating that they are abandoned to the 
destruction which they deserve. For it would iden- 
tify them as incorrigible, and reprobate ; in the same 
manner as the office of the mark of the beast and its 
image, is to identify those who are to continue, after 
the last warning, to bear it, as the irreclaimable vas- 
sals of those powers, and doomed to perish in the 
same penal fires with them. Such a sealing would 
be a sealing to perdition, therefore, not to life. This 
is the second result of their falsification of the 
passage. 

Thirdly ', " To expiate sinners," is an expression 
without any legitimate meaning ; inasmuch as sinners 
themselves are not the subjects of expiation, but only 



HAS BEEN FULFILLED. 155 

their sins. It implies, however, that their sins are to 
remain unexpiated ; and thence are forever to pre- 
clude them from pardon and salvation. 

Can any higher proof be conceived of the utter 
error of their construction of the passage, than that 
it leads to these false and shocking results ? How 
mistaken and fatal the principle is on which they 
proceed, may be exemplified by applying it to other 
kindred passages in the sacred word. Thus in the 
sublime language of John the Baptist : " Behold the 
Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world ;" 
if the word sin be stricken out, and the word sinners 
inserted in its place, not only is the object on which 
Christ's act is exerted, changed ; but the act itself he 
is to exert, is to be wholly altered in its nature and 
effect, and become an act of destruction instead of 
salvation. For to take away sinners, would be to 
strike them to the grave, and consign them to perdi- 
tion. " And the king said to the servants, ; Bind 
him hand and foot, and take him atvay, and east him 
into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and 
gnashing of teeth.' " " Because of wrath, beware lest 
he take thee away with a stroke ; then a great ran- 
som cannot deliver thee." So also of many other 
expressions ; as those in which Christ is said to have 
borne our sins, and been bruised for our iniquities. 
If sin is erased and sinful men are put in its place, the 
meaning becomes false and impossible : as the affirma- 
tion then is that he literally bore us, in our material 



156 THEIR DENIAL THAT DAJSTIEL IX. 24, 

nature Laving dimensions and weight in his own 
body on the tree ; which is truthless and monstrous ; 
while, on the other hand, the office he rilled in suffer- 
ing for our sins is wholly omitted. 

4. Their construction of the passage implies, that 
his death was not expiatory. As the great acts fore- 
shown of him in the verse, are indubitably those of 
obeying and suffering as the Messiah for the redemp- 
tion of men ; to deny that he in fact exerted those 
acts that are predicted of him, is plainly to deny 
that he died as an expiatory victim. If he did not 
in truth put a bar to transgression by his sacrifice ; 
if he did not put a mark of condemnation on sin, on 
the one side, by rendering a spotless obedience; and 
on the other by bearing its penalty ; how can it be 
said that his death was vicarious and expiatory ? The 
two propositions are direct antitheses. To affirm that 
the sacrificial acts foreshown in the verse are yet 
future, is equivalent to affirming that no death as a 
sacrifice for the sins of men has yet been borne by 
the Redeemer ; and to assert that, is in so many 
words to assert that no expiatory and redemptive 
work has yet been accomplished. But that is to con- 
tradict all the representations of the New Testament 
respecting his death. They all exhibit him as hav- 
ing accomplished his expiation in his death on the 
cross. " I delivered unto you first of all that which 
I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, 
according to the Scriptures ; of which this of Daniel 



HAS BEEN FULFILLED. 157 

was undoubtedly one of the most full and ex- 
plicit. 1 Cor. xv. 3. Peter says of him: u He his 
own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, 
that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteous- 
ness ; by whose stripes we are healed." 1. ch. ii. 24. 
And John says of him : " Unto him that loved us 
and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and 
hath made us kings and priests unto God even his 
Father ; to him be glory and dominion forever and 
ever." Rev. i. 5, 6. 

5. Their representation implies that the exaltation 
of Christ to the right hand of the Majesty on high, 
was premature. For it is expressly affirmed by Paul 
that it was because of his divesting himself of his 
form of God, and taking upon himself the form of a 
servant, and becoming obedient unto death, that he 
was exalted on high, and a name was given him that 
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every 
knee should bow of those in heaven, and those Qn the 
earth, and those under the earth ; and every tongue 
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory 
of God the Father. If then, as these authors affirm, he 
did not die that obedient death on the cross, and did 
not make expiation for sin, nor bring in everlasting 
righteousness by his life and his sacrifice ; what can 
be more certain than that his exaltation to the throne 
of heaven did not take place on the ground repre- 
sented by the Apostle ; and that he was not entitled 



158 THEIR DENIAL THAT DANIEL IX. 24, 

because of his mediatorial work, to the submission and 
adoration that are rendered to him in heaven ! Such 
are some of the revolting implications that are in- 
volved in their misrepresentation of his work as it is 
delineated in this passage. 

6. It implies that the faith of believers since his 
death contemplates him in a false relation. For they 
under the most explicit teachings of his word, accept 
and trust in him, as having died for their sins eigh- 
teen hundred years ago, according to the Scriptures ; 
not as in the ages that preceded his advent in the 
flesh, as a Saviour who is to make expiation for 
their sins at some future time. If, therefore, the 
views of these expositors, are in harmony with truth ; 
all believers since the first promulgation of the gos- 
pel, have essentially misapprehended his work, and 
built their hope in him, and paid him their homage, 
on a mistaken foundation. But that is false and im- 
possible. 

7. And finally, their theory implies that Christ's 
work of expiation is yet future ; and therefore, that 
he is to die at his second coming. If he is to be the 
Saviour of men ; and a spotless obedience and full 
expiation are to be the measures by which he is to 
save them ; what can be more certain, on the theory 
of these authors, than that he is yet to obey and die 
for them ; and that his second obedience and death 
are to take place at his coming again to the earth, 



HAS BEEN FULFILLED. 159 

and entering here on his everlasting reign ! I will 
not dwell on the senselessness and impiety of this 
implication. 

Snch are the overwhelming proofs of the ground- 
lessness and error of their construction of this great 
prophecy of the Redeemer's obedience and sacrifice 
at his first coming. 



160 THEIR THEORY OF THE FUTURITY 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Their theory respecting the futurity of the Seventieth Week of Daniel. 
Mr. Baxter's views ; The theory of Dr. Tregelles ; Rev. B. W. Newton's 
representations. 

These writers maintain, as some of the passages 
already cited show, that the last of the seventy weeks 
of Daniel, instead of immediately following the sixty- 
ninth, is disjoined from it by more than eighteen 
hundred years, and is still future, though to arrive 
and pass during the life of Louis Napoleon. I tran- 
scribe a few passages in which this theory is advanced. 
Mr. Baxter attaches a high importance to it, as an 
element of his system: and justly; as if it is over- 
thrown, his whole scheme falls with it. 

"The faith, of professing Christians is ahout to be tested by a 
signal and extraordinary fulfillment of prophesy, which will be 
despised and rejected by those who are fools and slow of heart 
to believe all that the prophets have spoken; but will be dis- 
tinctly understood by the wise and watchful, so as to enable 
them to discover the date of Christ's approaching advent. It 
was very generally believed by the early Christian church, that 
Daniel's seventieth week would be fulfilled at the time of the 
second advent, by the Antichrist being received by many of the 
Jews as their Messiah ; and subsequently placing his image, 
the abomination of desolation, in the rebuilt Jewish temple, 
which would thus be defiled during the latter half week ; the 



OF THE SEVENTIETH WEEK OF DANIEL. 161 

three and a half years of tyranny. This view was very little 
advocated during the dark ages of papal corruption ; but during 
the last half century it has been extensively revived. It is thus 
expected that seven years before the end, Antichrist will con- 
firm a covenant with many of the Jews for one week of seven 
years, and in the midst of the week will cause the sacrifice to 
cease even unto the end. As Louis Napoleon is clearly fore- 
shown to be the Antichrist; and as the end appears from the 
chronological prophesies, to be about, or soon after 1872 ; there- 
fore it now remains to be seen whether these interpretations 
will be proved to be true, by Napoleon making a seven years' 
covenant, about, or soon after 1864-5." — Louis Napoleon, pp. 
175, 176. 

Dr. Tregelles holds, in like manner, that the seven- 
tieth week is yet future, and is to coincide in date 
with the time, times, and half a time of Daniel vii. 
25, which he refers to the close of the present dispen- 
sation. 

"This series of years has run on unhinderedly, from the 
issuing of the edict to the cutting off of Messiah, but at this 
part of the vision there are various events spoken of, before the 
one remaining week comes into notice at all. And the city and 
the sanctuary shall the people destroy of a prince who shall 
come. This refers I have no doubt to the destruction of Jeru- 
salem by the Romans. . . . The prince who shall come, is the 
last head of the Roman power, the person concerning whom 
Daniel had received so much previous instruction. 

" The vision gives us no intimation about the times of the 
events which belong to the interval. We only find at the cut- 
ting off of Messiah, one seven years is unaccomplished. This 
' reserved week,"* as some have aptly called it, belongs to the 
time of the prince who shall come." — Remarks, p. 102. 



162 THEIR THEORY OF THE FUTURITY 

" The seventy weeks when distributed into portions, will 
then stand thus : — 
i. From the edict to the building of 

the wall 49 years. 

ii. From the building to Messiah the 

Prince and his cutting off 434 " 

[Then an interval of unmarked length.'] 
in. The period of the covenant of the 

prince that shall come 7 a 490.' 1 — p. 105. 

He thus represents the seventieth week as " unac- 
complished " at Messiah's death ; holds that it is 
thrown forward for a period whose length is unknown, 
but is not less than eighteen hundred years ; and is 
to be signalized when it conies, by the presence of 
the prince who is be the last head of the Roman 
power. 

The Rev. B. "W". Newton advances the same views. 

" The seventy hebdomads of years mentioned in this pas- 
sage, are distributed into three divisions. 

" The first consists of seven hebdomads, that is, 49 years. 

" The second of sixty-two hebdomads, " " 434 " 

" The third of one hebdomad, "" 7 "—490 

" The first of these divisions of forty-nine years, commenced 
when the commandment went forth to restore and to build 
Jerusalem. 

"The second division of four hundred thirty-four years, com- 
menced with the completion of the wall, and extends to the 
cutting off of Messiah. After threescore and two hebdomads — 
434 years, shall Messiah be cut off. 

"The third division of seven years, will commence when 
'the prince that shall come, 1 that is, Antichrist 'shall make 



OF THE SEVENTIETH WEEK OF DANIEL. 163 

a covenant with the multitude ' ; and ends by wrath being 
sent upon the Desolator, and blessing on Jerusalem. 

" The course of the hebdomads shall not be resumed until 
Israel, under a covenant formed with Antichrist, shall again 
assume a national existence in Jerusalem." — Aids to Prophetic 
Inquiry, pp. 135-137. 

I might cite similar representations from other 
writers, hut these may be taken as expressing the 
views that are common to the party. 

1. In regard to this important element of their 
system, it might reasonably have been presumed, 
that they would make some strenuous, and if practi- 
cable, scholarly effort, to demonstrate its truth. To 
take the liberty again of interpolating a groundless 
notion into the word of God, and demand for it the 
authority of inspiration, without uttering a syllable 
either to justify or palliate it, is an extraordinary 
offence, not only against God, but against man. 
They do not affect to allege any direct proof from 
the chapter itself of the futurity of the seventieth 
week. The only considerations they offer to corrobo- 
rate their theory, are drawn from other parts of 
Daniel, and are as unauthoritative and mistaken, as 
their notion is that the events foreshown as to take 
place in the seventieth week, are still future. 

2. This omission of proof from chap. ix. 24-27, 
was itself, however, the effect of necessity ; as there 
is not a hint in those verses, that the seventieth week 
was not to be the week that was immediately to sue- 



164 THEIR THEORY OF THE FUTURITY 

ceed the sixty-ninth. And this absence from the 
predictions of the passage of any intimation, direct 
or indirect, that the seventieth week was not imme- 
diately to follow the sixty-ninth, but was to be sepa- 
rated from it by an interval of many centuries, is 
itself a decisive signal of the error of their theory. 
For this is a prophecy in which certain times are 
given, for the express purpose of indicating the 
epochs when the events foreshown in it were to take 
place. How then is it to be assumed, that in such a 
revelation, in which the periods were essential ele- 
ments, God should disclose only those of them that 
are of the least significance, and subservient to others 
that are to follow ; and leave the most numerous and 
the most important, wrapt in a depth of darkness and 
uncertainty that must necessarily baffle and confound 
his children ? The supposition is derogatory to his 
truth and his wisdom. The object in here giving 
firsts the whole period of the weeks ; next, the seve- 
ral divisions into which they were distributed ; and 
then indicating the events that were to take place at 
the beginning of the first ; and at the beginning and 
close of the second ; plainly was, that it might be 
known first, from what event the first division was 
to be dated : and then from what epochs the second 
and third were to be reckoned. That was the natu- 
ral effect of the division, and of the designation of 
the event, that was to mark the beginning of the 
first ; and the date and event, that were to identify 



OF THE SEVENTIETH WEEK OF DANIEL. 165 

the commencement of the second : and finally the 
great acts that were to bespeak the close of the 
sixty-two weeks and the presence of the seventieth. 

Thus, the decree of Artaxerxes indicated the begin- 
ning of the first division, and the building of the 
wall and city, as the great event that signalized that 
period. The rebuilding, and the close of the 49 years 
from the date of the decree, indicated the commence- 
ment of the second period, in immediate continuity 
with the seven preceding weeks. Reckoning from 
that date, the termination of the sixty and two 
weeks, was determinable without the designation of 
the acts by which it was marked, though it was 
doubtless identified, to such as understood it, by the 
baptism of Jesus ; the descent of the Spirit on him ; 
the public recognition of him as his Son by the 
Father ; and the open identification of him by John 
as the Lamb of God who was to take away the sin 
of the world. The announcement that after the 
sixty and two weeks Messiah should be cut off, iden- 
tified the period of his death as the seventieth week : 
and the prediction that he should confirm the cove- 
nant for one week, in the middle of which he should 
cause sacrifice and oblation to cease, showed that his 
death was to take place at that point in the seventieth 
week. To deny it, is to deny that it was the object 
of the division of the weeks into groups, and the pre- 
diction of events that were to mark their dates, and 
their periods, to make known the periods and epochs 



166 THEIR THEORY OF THE FUTURITY 

when the great events of the prophecy were to take 
place ; and is therefore to contradict the most peculiar 
and distinctive feature that is sculptured on its face. 
According to these writers, there is not a solitary 
hint, when the great events foreshown, v. 24, are to 
take place ! If it were so, the pretence that a chro- 
nology of the periods aud dates, is inserted in the 
prophecy, would plainly be a misrepresentation. 
For what chronology of the whole period and its 
great series of acts and events would the dates and 
periods of the two first divisions form ? They owe 
their whole significance to their relation to the re- 
maining division. If the time and the events of the 
third are unknown, the knowledge of the date of the 
decree of Artaxerxes authorizing the rebuilding of 
Jerusalem, and that forty-nine years would pass be- 
fore the wall of the city would be completed, would 
be of little consequence, even while the period was 
revolving ; and would lose all its special importance 
to the generations that followed that age. The bare 
announcement that after the first division, a period 
of sixty-two weeks was to follow in immediate con- 
tinuity with the seven weeks without any prediction 
of the events in which they were to terminate, would 
be but a mockery. Their theory is thus not only 
unverified by them, but is in palpable contradiction 
to the structure of the passage, and to the object for 
which the chronology is given of its great periods 
and events. 



OF THE SEVENTIETH WEEK OF DANIEL. 167 

3. But they not only disregard the structure of the 
prophecy ; they contravene the express representa- 
tion it presents, that the reason that the seventy 
weeks were cut off from other time, was, that they 
were to be the period of the great events that were 
to reach their climax, in the crucifixion of Christ, 
and the confirmation of the covenant with Israel. 
" Seventy weeks are cut off, upon thy people, and 
upon thy holy city, to put a bar to, and restrain trans- 
gression ; and to seal sin ; and to expiate iniquity ; 
and to bring forth everlasting righteousness ; and to 
seal vision and prophecy; and to anoint a Holy of 
Holies." This is thus an express announcement that 
the seventy weeks were separated in their relation to 
the Jewish people, and their holy city, from other 
time, in order that they might be, and because they 
were to be the period, in which the Messiah was to 
appear and accomplish his sacrificial work for the 
redemption of men. And they are exhibited as cut 
off as a whole, and at one stroke; not in parcels, 
and by successive acts. If they had been cut off by 
successive acts, in two periods separated from each 
other by a vast series of ages, the description would 
unquestionably have been in conformity with that 
fact. Why should the Spirit of truth frame the re- 
presentation in such a manner, as to indicate that 
the weeks were to be a continuous series ; if they 
were not to be such ? Why should their dissever- 
ance from each other by ages, be concealed ; and the 



168 THEIE THEORY OF THE FUTURITY 

people of the covenant thereby be involved in inex- 
plicable doubt and perplexity % The supposition of 
such a procedure is an impeachment of his rectitude 
and benignity, and is against the very letter of the 
narrative. The weeks were cut off as one period, 
and at one stroke. Their division into groups was 
by a subsequent act, and was in order to indicate the 
parts of the series in which the great events, that 
were to lead on to the consummation, were to fall. 
Thus, the first great event that was to be in order 
to that consummation was, the rebuilding of Jerusa- 
lem. That is indicated in the decree itself of Artax- 
erxes, and in the prophecy ; and the seven weeks, 
the first division of the seventy are designated as its 
period. The building of the walls of the city also, 
and re-erection of dwellings, which were authorized 
by the decree of Artaxerzes given to Nehemiah, were 
indispensable conditions to all that was to follow in 
the sixty and two weeks, and in the seventieth ; in 
order to the protection of the inhabitants from the 
enemies by whom they were surrounded ; in order to 
the public celebration of the sacrificial rites, and the 
stated offering of worship ; in order to the religious 
education of the people, their preservation from re- 
lapses to idolatry, and their nurture in that knowl- 
edge and belief of the great purposes of God in 
respect to their redemption, by which they should be 
kept in expectation of the coming of the Messiah. 
The commencement of that first period, was given in 



OF THE SEVENTIETH WEEK OF DANIEL. 169 

the prophecy itself, and the great event also, that 
was to take place at the close of the second division. 
" Know therefore and understand that from the going 
forth of the commandment to restore and to build 
Jerusalem, unto Messiah the Prince, shall be seven 
weeks, and three score and two weeks." The rebuild- 
ing of the wall of the city took place we know from 
Nehemiah, before the expiration of the first of the 
seven weeks. The re-erection of dwellings continued, 
doubtless, through the whole period, and the com- 
plete reorganization of the community, and re-estab- 
lishment over them of the laws by which they were 
to regulate their conduct as God's people, we learn 
from Nehemiah, did not take place till the close, or 
near the close of the forty-ninth year, from the date 
of the Persian monarch's decree. — E'en. xiii. 

The prophecy presents no indication, what the 
great events that were to signalize the sixty-twu 
weeks, the second period were to be. We know 
however from the cutting off of the seventy weeks 
in order to the coming, ministry and sacrifice of the 
Messiah, that the sixty and two weeks, like the first 
seven, were to be the period of events that would 
contribute in a conspicuous manner to a preparation 
for those of the seventieth week : which was to be 
the time of Christ's ministry and death. And we 
learn from history, that many of the great measures 
of Providence, and acts of men, that had their place 
in that time, filled a most important office in gene- 



170 THEIR THEORY OF THE FUTURITY 

rating that posture both of the Jewish and the 
Gentile world, which marked the period of Christ's 
birth, ministry, and death. Among them was the 
conquest of the Persian empire by the Greeks ; the 
more favorable condition in which the Jews in 
Palestine and the neighboring countries were placed ; 
their far larger intercourse with the east and the 
west ; the multiplication of their colonies, especially 
in Asia Minor and Greece; the use of the Greek 
language to w T hich they became addicted ; and the 
diffusion and use of that language through all the 
countries that were comprised in the Greek empire, 
or had a large commercial intercourse with its mara- 
time cities. This was an event of the utmost signifi- 
cance, as the language of the Greeks became the 
chief vehicle of communicating the Gospel both to 
Jews and Gentiles, especially at the west ; and was 
the tongue in which the inspiring Spirit embodied 
the discourses of our Lord, the history of his life, 
his preaching and his crucifixion, and the revelations 
made by him of his purposes respecting the future. 
That the conquest of Palestine and the neighboring 
countries by the Greeks, was to exert a vast influ- 
ence on the condition of the Jews, is clearly fore- 
shown indeed, in Daniel's eighth, tenth and eleventh 
chapters. 

Another event fruitful of a vast train of effects of 
the most important and benign character, during 
this period, was the translation of the Hebrew Scrip- 



OF THE SEVENTIETH WEEK OF DANIEL. 171 

tures into Greek, by which the knowledge of the Old 
Testament was placed within the reach of the Gen- 
tile population of the empire who were familiar with 
that language. 

A third event of immeasurable moment in the 
great series that was to lead on to that condition of 
the Jewish and of the Gentile world, that distin- 
guished the time of Christ's birth and life, was the 
conquest of the Greek empire by the Romans. Out 
of it sprung the arbitrary and cruel rule of Herod the 
great, the Procuratorship of Pontius Pilate, and the 
sway of Herod Antipas and Herod Agrippa. From it 
resulted in a great measure the civil and religious con- 
dition of the Jewish people, the ambition of the rulers, 
and the malice of the priests, which issued in the re- 
jection and crucifixion of the Son of God. This con- 
quest was also foreshown in the prophecies of Daniel, 
and many of the great acts of the new power, espe- 
cially its overthrow of the Jewish state, and its 
antagonism to the Prince of princes were predicted, 
and a vivid picture drawn of the vast influences it 
was to exert for ages. 

All these events, though not enumerated in 
Daniel's ninth chapter, contributed in the most 
direct and effective manner, to place the Jewish 
community and Gentile population of the Roman 
empire in that attitude in which they stood at the 
birth, ministry, and death of Christ. 

Another note of time is presented in the announce- 



172 THEIR THEORY OF THE FUTURITY 

ment that " from the going forth of the command- 
ment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto Mes- 
siah the prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore 
and two weeks :" and this indicates in the most dis- 
tinct and definite manner, the event that on the one 
side was to mark the close of the sixty-ninth week, 
and on the other, the commencement of the seventieth. 
The expression " unto the Messiah, the Prince," 
refers, not to his birth, but to his baptism, recogni- 
tion by the Father as his beloved Son, and command 
that those to whom he was sent, should hear him ; 
and his entrance on his trial in the wilderness and on 
his ministry to the Jews. This is certain from the 
chronology. Four hundred and eighty-three years 
had elapsed from the date of the decree to his en- 
trance on his ministry; and no more. To regard 
the event at which the sixty-ninth week terminated, 
as his birth would involve an error of thirty years : 
as therefore there is no event subsequent to his pub- 
lic identification as the Messiah by the Father and the 
Spirit, the open announcement of him as the Lamb 
of God by the Baptist, and his own avowal of him- 
self as the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, 
to which it could with any propriety be referred, it 
is certain that the event at which the sixty-ninth 
week ended, was Christ's public manifestation by 
God and by himself as the Son of the Most High, 
and the promised Prince of Israel. 

This declaration demonstrates, therefore, in the 



OF THE SEVENTIETH WEEK OF DANIEL. 173 

most definitive manner, on the one hand, that the 
death of Christ did not take place in the sixty-ninth 
week, for that week ended at his entrance on his 
ministry ; and on the other, that the period of his 
ministry and death was the seventieth week; and, 
as his ministry extended through only three years 
and a half, that the date of his death was at the dis- 
tance of three years and a half from the close of the 
sixty-ninth week ; and this is confirmed by the repre- 
sentation that in the midst of the one week he should 
cause sacrifice and oblation to cease ; setting aside 
by his vicarious death the necessity and obligation 
any longer to offer the sacrifice, whose office was 
simply to typify him. There thus is not the slightest 
room left for doubt, whether his ministry and death 
had their place in the seventieth week. There is not 
a single point in the chronology of the chapter that 
is more demonstrably clear and incontrovertible than 
this. The theory of these writers is, accordingly, not 
only unsupported by the prophecy, but is against its 
plainest and most indubitable specifications of its 
dates and times. 

4. That is confirmed by the prediction, v. 26, "And 
after the three score and two weeks shall Messiah be 
cut off." This is in harmony with the fact already re- 
vealed, that the sixty-nine weeks were to close, and 
the seventieth begin at the epoch of his entrance on 
his ministry. It is equivalent, therefore, to a specific 
denial that he died during the sixty-ninth, or any pre- 



174: THEIR THEORY OF THE FUTURITY 

vious week ; and to an explicit affirmation that his 
death was to take place in the seventieth week. As 
it was after the sixty-ninth week, and there was but 
one week of the seventy remaining, its period was, by 
the unequivocal definitions of the text, the seventieth 
week. And these clear specifications, these repeated 
determinations of the time, as in that week, and no- 
where else, were doubtless designed, among other 
ends, to place in the hands of the priests, teachers 
and people, ample means of identifying the great 
epochs of the prophecy as they occurred, and to guard 
them and the generations that followed, against delu- 
sion by the false Christs who were to rise soon after 
the promulgation of the Gospel, and proclaim them 
selves the Messiah promised in this ancient prophet. 
5. All this is confirmed by the chronology of the 
period. As we know from the prophecy itself that 
the epoch of his manifestation to Israel, and entrance 
on his ministry, was the termination of the sixty-ninth 
week, and beginning of the seventieth, v. 25 ; and as 
we know that he entered on his ministry in his thirty- 
first year, Luke iii. 23, we know that seven years 
added to the thirty that had passed before his bap- 
tism, extended to the thirty-eighth from his birth. 
And this accords with the chronology of the sixty- 
nine weeks of Daniel himself; the statements of the 
Gospels and Acts, and the testimony of secular his- 
torians ; and places it beyond doubt that his ministry 
and death had their periods in the seventieth week. 



OF THE SEVENTIETH WEEK OF DANIEL. 175 

The date to which the twentieth of Artaxerxes is on 
the most authoritative grounds referred, is the four 
hundred and fifty-fifth year, before the first of the 
current Christian era. It is admitted by writers gen- 
erally that Christ's birth took place at least three 
years earlier than the date that has been assigned to 
it by Archbishop Usher and others. Let us assume 
that our Saviour's birth occurred in the four hundred 
and fifty-third year from the date of the decree, from 
which the seventy weeks are reckoned. That would 
be the four hundred and fifty-third year of the four 
hundred and ninety : add to that the thirty years that 
intervened between his birth and his baptism, and 
they make 483 years. Add then the three and a-half 
years of his ministry, and the like period of the con- 
firmation of the covenant after his crucifixion, and 
they make 490 years, the exact number embraced in 
the period denoted by the seventy weeks. 

This Dr. Tregelles rejects, and expresses the belief 
that the ministry and death of Christ had their place 
in the sixty-ninth week, on the assumption that the 
public manifestation of himself as the Messiah, re- 
ferred to in v. 25, did not take place till his entrance 
into Jerusalem, four days before his last Passover. 
But that is a groundless and most unwarrantable as- 
sumption. Christ had been publicly recognized and 
proclaimed by the Father himself as his Son, three 
years and a-half before ; had been pointed out by John 
the Baptist as the Lamb of God ; and had, in the first 



176 THEIR THEORY OF THE FUTURITY 

year of his teaching, been acknowledged by Nathaniel 
as the Son of God and the King of Israel ; had openly 
avowed his deity and Messiahship to Nicodemus ; and 
in his discussions with the Jewish teachers and rulers 
had apprised them that it was by faith in him alone that 
they could obtain admission to his kingdom ; and it 
was the clearness and fullness of these assertions of 
his Messiahship, and the confirmation of their truth 
presented in his great and numerous miracles, that 
had wrought the exulting convictions in the minds of 
the crowd that attended him in his entry into Jeru- 
salem, by which they were led to shout hosannahs to 
him as the Son of David, their promised Messiah, 
and pronounce blessings on him as the great messen- 
ger who had come in the name of the Lord. There 
was no more explicit and emphatic exhibition of him- 
self on that occasion as the Son of David, nor any 
higher manifestation of his divine power, than marked 
his ministry at every stage from his recognition by 
John, Nathaniel and Nicodemus at its commence- 
ment, to the hour of his entry into the city when his 
followers had become so numerous, and so open in their 
homage as to alarm the priests and rulers, and prompt 
them to consummate the conspiracy against his life 
which they had secretly cherished, through near the 
whole course of his teaching. 

Dr. Tregelles also endeavors to elude the proof 
furnished by v. 27, that the Redeemer's death took 
place in the seventieth week ; by alleging that the 



OF THE SEVEJZTIETII WEEK OF DANIEL. 177 

personage who was to confirm the covenant with 
many for one week, instead of the Messiah, was the 
prince mentioned, v. 26, who with his army was to 
destroy the city and sanctuary. 

" This destruction is here said to be wrought by a certain 
people, not by the prince who shall come, but by his people : 
this refers, as I believe, to the Eomans as the last holders of 
undivided Gentile power : — They wrought the destruction long 
ages ago ; — the prince who shall come, v. 26, is the last head of 
the Eoman power, the person concerning whom Daniel had 
received so much previous instruction. And he the prince who 
shall come, shall confirm a covenant with many for one week." 
—Pp. 102, 103. 

But here, in the first place, is a misrepresentation 
of the passage. There is no intimation in it, as Dr. Tre- 
gelles implies, that the people, that is, the army of the 
prince, was to destroy the city wholly independently 
and irrespectively of him. The supposition is solecis- 
tical, as it assumes that the Roman legions h-ad no 
commander. But so far was that from being the fact, 
it was the prince himself, it is expressly said, who 
was to come to the city, and therefore at the head of 
his legions, while no formal notice is given that his 
warrior host should come. That is only implied in 
the acts it is foreshown they were after their arrival 
to exert. The plain meaning of the expression 
therefore is, that the prince who was to come, should 
by his army, destroy the city and the sanctuary. 
Who then was that prince ? He is spoken of as 

8* 



178 THEIR THEORY OF THE FUTURITY 

already predicted, and known therefore to the reader. 
The language is not, — a prince shall come, — of whom 
the reader had had no intimation before ; but, the 
prince who, as already foreshown, is to come. The 
answer is undoubtedly, it is the prince, or line, sym-. 
bolized by the sixth horn of the goat, ch. viii. 9, 23, 
24, who it is predicted, " should destroy the mighty 
and the holy people ;" as that horn was indubitably 
the symbol of the line of Roman Rulers, who con- 
quered Macedonia in the year 168 before Christ, and 
subsequently extending their dominion over the 
whole of the Greek empire, held possession of Pales- 
tine at the birth and crucifixion of our Lord. The 
text confutes therefore, instead of sustaining his con- 
struction. 

In the next place, he admits that the Romans under 
Titus — then a prince, and subsequently emperor — 
marched to Jerusalem and beseiged, captured and 
destroyed it, according to the letter of v. 26. But 
that exhausts the scope of the prediction. He, how- 
ever, assumes that there is to be another destruction 
of the Jewish city and sanctuary, and a fierce perse- 
cution of the people by the personage whom he calls 
the last head of the Roman power. He proceeds 
perhaps on Mr. Baxter's theory, that there is to be 
a double fulfillment of the prophesies of Daniel and 
John. "Whether it be so, or not, he is wholly mis- 
taken. There most certainly is no prediction in v. 27 
that there is to be another desolation of the city by 



OF THE SEVENTIETH WEEK OF DANIEL. 179 

the Romans, or any other people, beside that fore- 
shown, v. 26. Nor is there any prediction in Isaiah 
or Zechariah of snch a catastrophe. The picture 
drawn by each of those prophets represents the city 
as still standing, after the second advent of Christ 
and destruction of the hostile Gentile hosts. The 
people of the city are to nee into the valley opened 
by the removal of the Mount of Olives, half toward 
the north, and half toward the south, at the moment 
of Christ's descent, Zech. xiv. 4, 5 ; while the over- 
throw of walls and battlements and towns, foretold 
by Isaiah, is ascribed to Jehovah's arising to shake 
terribly the earth. Ch. ii. 14-21. 

In the third place, his assumption that the person- 
age who was to confirm the covenant for one week 
with many of the Jews, was the prince of v. 20, 
whose hosts were to destroy the city, and that that 
prince is still future, and is to be the last head of the 
Ttoman power, is not only groundless, but is in .total 
contravention of the usages of language, and the 
laws of our nature. For according to Dr. Tregelles, 
what the passage affirms is, that the people of a prince 
who was not himself to come until 1800 years had 
revolved, should destroy the city and the sanctuary. 
But that implies that that prince was already in life, 
and was to continue in it through that vast period. 
Otherwise the people who were to destroy the city, 
could not be his people. It is absurd and solecistical 
to speak of a "people, as the people of a prince, who 



ISO THEIE THEORY OF THE FUTURITY 

is not in existence, and is not to come into being till 
a vast series of ages has passed. Such a non-exist- 
ence could have no authority over them. He could 
have no power to exert acts in reference to them. 
He would he, as respects them, as mere a nonentity, 
as he would be, if he were never to have a being. 
When a series of monarchs reign over the same 
nation through a succession of generations, the people 
are the people of each individual monarch in the 
line, — only while he holds the sceptre over them. 
The subjects of Queen Victoria of England, are ex- 
clusively those who are contemporaries with her, and 
live under her sway. She is not the queen of the 
English people of the generation that lived under the 
rule of Henry YHL, Elizabeth, James I., the Charleses, 
or any of her predecessors, who passed from life before 
their birth who constituted the nation, when she 
assumed the throne. Her subjects became her peo- 
ple, only when she became their sceptred head. The 
people of Louis Napoleon, are those exclusively who 
live under his rule. He is not the monarch of the 
generation over which Henry IY. reigned. He is 
not the prince of the French people that lived under 
the sceptre of Louis XIV. He is not the monarch 
of the generation that was contemporaneous with 
Louis XY. ; nor even of those, except they still sur- 
vive, who were the subjects of his relative the first 
JSTapoleon. Yet this self-evident truth, Dr. Tregelles 
with astonishing inconsideration disregards, and as- 



OF THE SEVENTIETH WEEK OF DANIEL. 181 

sumes that Antichrist, who is not yet revealed, was 
the chief of the Roman host in the siege and destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem in the seventieth year of the Christ- 
ian era, and attempts in violation of the most indubit- 
able laws of thought and language, to fasten that pre- 
posterous sense on the words of the prophecy, that he 
may bend it into harmony with his mistaken theory. 

He affirms that a the prince who was to come," 
was " the last head of the Roman power." If that 
were true, he was indisputably a Roman in his line- 
age, and must therefore have been in life at the 
latest, before the fall of the last head of that power, 
at the overthrow of the western Roman empire. 
There has been no head of the western empire since 
the abdication of Augustulus. All the present civil 
rulers of the kingdoms that occupy the territory of 
that imperium, are of Gothic descent, and they, and 
they alone, or others of the same lineage, are to hold 
the sceptres of those realms till the Son of God comes, 
and puts an end to their rule. 

The prince, in verse 26, is not, as Dr. Tregelles 
represents, the antecedent of " he," supplied by the 
translators, in the expression : " lie shall confirm the 
covenant with many for one week." If it were, 
it would prove that Titus the Roman prince, who 
conquered the city, was the person who confirmed 
the covenant with many for one week, inasmuch as 
he, as I have shown, was the chief who commanded 
the legions by which the city and sanctuary were 



182 THEIR THEORY OF THE FUTURITY 

destroyed. This is seen also from the fact, that there 
was no covenant in existence between Titus and many 
of the Jews to be confirmed by him ; nor was any 
made and confirmed with any portion of that people 
after the siege commenced. "Not a trace of such 
a transaction exists on the records of that period by 
Josephus, or the Latin historians ; nor is the suppo- 
sition of a league between them compatible with the 
narratives given by those writers, of the unyielding 
obstinacy and delirious infatuation of the chiefs and 
factions that reigned in the city throughout its 
investment. And finally, this is placed beyond 
doubt by the fact that the covenant that was con- 
firmed, was the covenant of God with his ancient 
people ; and the Being who confirmed it, was the 
Messenger of the Covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
who made the expiation for sin, and rendered the 
obedience that were to be the grounds of pardon and 
salvation to men. 

The reason that the prediction of the overthrow of 
the city and sanctuary was interposed between the 
prophecy of his death and the prophecy of his con- 
firming the covenant, doubtless was, that the Jewish 
people might be apprised that Christ was not to enter 
on his reign as the king of that people immediately 
after his resurrection. This is obvious from the 
expression, " Messiah shall be cut off; but there is 
nothing to him. And (even) the city and the sanctu- 
ary, the people of the prince who shall come will lay 



OF THE SEVENTIETH WEEK OF DANIEL. 183 

waste ; and the end shall be with a flood ; and unto 
the end, war, a decree of desolations." The expres- 
sion, " and it is not to him," or, " there is nothing to 
him," is plainly elliptical, and indicates that there 
was something, which without this notice, Jewish 
believers might assume was immediately to follow 
his death and resurrection ; but which was not then 
to take place. "What was it, then, that belonged to 
him as the Messiah, that was not then to be received 
by him ? His inauguration as the king of Zion, and 
entrance on his reign over Israel and over the earth, 
according to the prediction, Psalm ii. 6-8, "Yet have 
1 set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will 
declare the decree : The Lord hath said unto me, 
Thou art my Son ; this day have I begotten thee. 
Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine 
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for 
thy possession." It was this investiture with the 
dominion of the earth, which the disciples thought 
might take place soon after his resurrection, that was 
postponed, in accordance with the vision of his 
coming in the clouds (chapter vii. 13, 14) till the 
time arrives of the judgment and destruction of the 
powers represented by the beast. This announce- 
ment that his kingdom on earth was not immediately 
to be given to him, but was to follow his ascent 
to heaven, where he is to reign till his enemies are 
put under his feet, was needful, doubtless, to guard 
his people from misconception and disappointment, 



184: THEIR THEORY OF THE FUTURITY 

and show them when the moment came that the 
risen Redeemer ascended to his throne in the skies, 
that that great measure was not a departure from the 
purposes God had before revealed, but was in order 
to their final accomplishment. And the natural 
place for this announcement, is that which it received, 
in immediate connection with the prediction of his 
death ; and followed by the prophecy that the city in 
which his throne at his second coming is to be 
established, was in the meantime to be overthrown, 
and the nation swept away as by a flood. Having 
thus, on the one -hand, indicated the postponement 
of Christ's reign on the earth, in conformity with 
the vision (ch. vii. 9-14) which exhibits his coming 
in the clouds, and reception of the dominion of the 
earth as not to take place till the power denoted by 
the beast has run its career, and the hour of its 
judgment has come ; and on the other, foreshown the 
desolation of the city and sanctuary, and the slaughter 
and exile of the nation ; the prophecy then as natu- 
rally returns to the confirmation of the covenant with 
Israel, which Christ was to give during the seventieth 
week, in the teachings and miracles of his ministry, 
in his death on the cross, in the gift of his renewing 
and inspiring Spirit to his disciples, by which he 
opened to them a full knowledge of all the ancient 
predictions respecting himself, and brought to their 
remembrance all the words of instruction and predic- 
tion they had heard from his lips. And it was 



OF THE SEVENTIETH WEEK OF DANIEL. 185 

equally suitable and natural, that in connection with 
this, it should be foreshown that the typical sacrifices 
were to be discontinued after his death ; and finally, 
that after the seventy weeks had expired, the temple 
and its courts, in which those sacrifices had been 
offered, were to be polluted by abominations that 
would draw down a desolation that should continue 
till the full judgment on the nation, which had been 
predicted, has been accomplished. 

The view I have presented of this passage, and of 
the whole question, respecting the seventieth week 
of the prophecy, is thus supported by all its language, 
and all that we know of the events it foreshows, from 
other portions of the word of God. No arbitrary 
assumptions are employed to give it support ; no 
violations of the laws of thought and speech to sus- 
tain it ; no contradictions to the office and work of 
Christ ; no ascriptions of the actions of persons whose 
period was eighteen hundred years ago, to a being 
who has not yet come into existence, nor is ever 
to appear in our world. The theory of these writers, 
built up with so much labor and artifice, conse- 
quently falls to the ground. 



186 THEIR NOTION THAT SOME PROPHECEES 



CHAPTEE IX. 

Some of these "Writers maintain that many of the Prophecies are to have 
a Donble Fulfillment. 

Another important element of the system held by 
some of these authors is the pretext that those of the 
prophecies of Daniel and John, of which the periods 
are given, are to have a two-fold accomplishment, the 
first extending through as many years as there are 
days in the symbol by which they are represented ; 
the other extending through only as many days as 
there are units in the symbol itself: twelve hundred 
and sixty days, first denoting twelve hundred and 
sixty years ; and next, the number of days which the 
words literally express. This theory is stated with 
less distinctness both by Mr. Baxter and by the au- 
thors whose opinions in regard to it he quotes. The 
following passages present the clearest of Mr. Bax- 
ter's statements in respect to it : 

" The relative positions of the twenty events ' that are to occur 
during the final seven years and two and a half months of this 
dispensation,' are ascertained in many cases, by deducing the 
future literal day fulfillment of the prophecies, from their past 
year day fulfillment. These positions are here shown by giving 
their distance from the date of the covenant, as a common stand- 
ard of reference." — Preface, j). m. 



HAVE A DOUBLE FULFILLMENT. 187 

" Futurist literal day expositors hold that the three and a half 
years mentioned in Daniel vii., xii., and Revelation xi., xii., 
xiii., as a time, times, and a-half, or forty-two months, are the 
three and a half years of the Antichrist's future persecution ; 
and are identical with the latter half of Daniel's seventieth 
week of seven years, which commences with a seven years' 
covenant being made between the Antichrist and the Jews. 
This does not conflict with the view that there has been a typi- 
cal year day fulfillment of that three and a half times, as 1260 
years of Papal dominancy, and of the little horns of Daniel vii. 
and viii., as the Papal and Mahometan powers respectively." — 
Baxter, pp. 182, 183. 

How generally this view is entertained by tin's 
school of authors I am not aware. It is not held by 
Dr. Tregelles nor by the Rev. B. W. Newton, as they 
maintain that neither the time, times and half a time 
of Daniel, nor any other periods are employed as 
symbols of longer times than they themselves liter- 
ally denote. The theory thus is, that there are two 
sets of periods of which the first, like the time, times 
and half a time, and the 1260 days of Daniel, bears 
the same proportion to the second, that years bear to 
days ; that the two sets are to terminate at the same 
moment ; and that each of the corresponding periods, 
such as the twelve hundred and sixty days, and the 
three and a half years, are to be occupied by identi- 
cally the same actors and events. The series of events 
for example that is foreshown as to take place during 
the twenty-three hundred days interpreted as sym- 
bols of twenty-three hundred years, are to be repeated 



188 THEIR NOTION THAT SOME PROPHECIES 

again by the same actors, and in the same forms and 
conditions in the last twenty-three hundred literal 
days of the present dispensation. That this is the 
view held by those who advocate the notion of a 
double fulfillment of the prophecies, in which times 
are used as symbols of times, is clear, from the con- 
sideration that there cannot be " a future literal day 
fulfillment" of those prophecies unless it is precisely 
like their past year day fulfillment, in agents, acts, 
events and conditions. The sole difference between 
them must lie in their respective lengths. Their like- 
ness is to lie in the literal fulfillment in each, of the 
prophecies in which days are used as symbols of 
years ; and in the coincidence of the moment in 
which they are to reach their end. The truth of this 
representation is amplv confirmed by Mr. Baxter. 
He says : 

"It is not surprising that a few writers should have imagined 
that form of the periods of three and a-half years mentioned 
twice in Daniel, and five times in Bevelation, should signify the 
first half of the final week of seven years ; and others of these 
periods of its last half. It is a natural mistake for those to fall 
into who do not understand how remarkahly all the periods 
have had a 'precursory year-day simultaneous fulfillment within 
twelve hundred and sixty years, from the year of our Lord 534 
to 1794-5 ; and, therefore, they will all necessarily synchronise 
and run parallel in their future literal day fulfillment within 
1260 days ; or the last half of the seventieth week. Those 
literal day expositors who shirk laborious investigation, by 
blindly ignoring the year-day fulfillment, grope and stumble in 



HAVE A DOUBLE FULFILLMENT. 189 

the dark when they attempt to arrange the relative positions of 
the literal day seals, trumpets and vials ; whereas this arrange- 
ment is discoverable in its minutest details by deducing the 
literal day fulfillment from the year-day fulfillment, because the 
literal day fulfillment of Daniel and Revelation within 2595 
days, will be almost as exact fao simile of their year-day 
fulfillment within 2595 years." — Note, pp. 247, 248. 

The literal day fulfillment is thus, according to Mr. 
Baxter, to be an exact copy as to agents, acts and events, 
of the year day fulfillment, which will in the main 
have preceded it. He accordingly says, in another 
passage : 

" In reading the works of literal day expositors who interpret 
the 1260 days three and a half times, and forty-two months, to 
mean 1260 literal days, or three and a half years ; and of year- 
day expositors who interpret the same periods to mean 1260 
years, the prophetic student must not be stumbled at their some- 
times mutually rejecting each others views. Each system of in- 
terpretation is, however, equally correct, for there is a double 
fulfillment of most of the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, 
primarily in years, and secondly in days." — p. 183. 

If there is to be such a double fulfillment, the two 
must be exactly alike, as to agents, acts, events and 
conditions, and differ only in the length of the periods 
they occupy, as years differ in length from days. 

But this theory of a double fulfillment of the pro- 
phecies is wholly mistaken, and fraught with immea- 
surable confusion and self-confutation. 

1. It is a mere assumption, unsupported by even a 



190 THEIR NOTION THAT SOME PROPHECIES 

pretext of proof. 'Not a word is penned by Mr. 
Baxter to show that it has any authority from the 
word of God. The fancy entertained by him that 
the arrangement he proposes of the literal day seals, 
trumpets and vials, is easily discoverable in its min- 
utest details, by deducing the literal day from the 
year day fulfillment, " because the literal day fulfill- 
ment of Daniel and Revelation, within 2595 days, 
will be almost an exact fac simile of their year day 
fulfillment within 2595 years," is no proof that there 
is to be such a literal day fulfillment. In alleging it 
as evidence of the truth of the theory, he assumes 
the identical point he affects to establish. 

2. It is in total contradiction to the laws of symboli- 
zation. The general principle on which symbols are 
employed, is that of analogy : — things of one species 
or sphere being taken to represent things of another to 
which they bear a general resemblance. In symboli- 
zing time, time itself of a known and specific period, 
is used to represent time of a longer, but an analogous 
length. Thus, a day of twenty-four hours, during 
which the earth revolves on its axis, is employed as 
the representative of the analogous period of a solar 
year, during which the earth wheels round the sun. 
This is the only relation in wnich time is used as a 
symbol of time ; and the only one in which it can be 
used on the ground of resemblance. But this great 
law, the theory of a double prediction by the same 
symbol contradicts, by affirming that the 1260, 1290, 



HAVE A DOUBLE FULFILLMENT. 191 

1335, and 2300 days, while used as representatives of 
years, are in the same instances used, not as symbols 
of years, but unsymbolieally to denote the simple 
number of days which they literally express. But 
that is to deny that they are used as representatives 
of years. If it is a known and indubitable fact, that 
they are employed to denote the mere number of 
days, of which they themselves severally consist, how 
can it be shown that they are also used in the relation 
of analogy, to denote a corresponding number of 
years % It plainly cannot. If on the other hand, it 
is known from the laws of symbolization, and from 
the fulfillments that have taken place of the predic- 
tions in which they occur, that they are employed as 
symbols to represent years, instead of days, how can 
it then be shown that they are in the same identical 
instances used as days to signify periods that corres- 
pond in length to themselves ? They manifestly can- 
not. The attempt to fix on them such a meaning, is 
groundless and arbitrary in the extreme. 

3. If the theory is legitimate, then on the same 
principle, the literal day predictions, must be taken 
as symbolizing each another period, that is to follow 
itself, with another literal day fulfillment ; and that 
literal day period of fulfillment, must be held to be 
the representative of a third, and so on without end. 
But that overturns the faith of these writers that 
Christ is to come at, or soon after, the close of the 
1260 or 1290 years; and put an end to the times of 



192 THEIR NOTION THAT SOME PROPHECIES 

the Gentiles. For if, as their scheme of a double 
prophecy and fulfillment implies, there is to be an end- 
less succession of the periods foreshown in Daniel 
and John, then indubitably either Christ is not to 
come at the close of the first 1260 or 1290 years, as 
these authors maintain, or else he is to come an infi- 
nite number of times ; which is contradictory to the 
prophesies, and confutes and confounds in the most 
pitiable manner, their belief as to his coming but 
once ; and at, or near the close of the 1260 or 1290 
years. If they can prove that the 1260 days, besides 
symbolizing a like number of years, also foreshow 
another literal 1260 days like themselves ; then they 
cannot prove that that literal 1260 days, does not 
also foreshow a second 1260 literal days that aro 
immediately to follow them and be characterized by 
the same actors, acts, events, and conditions, as they 
are. And if they cannot prove that, then plainly 
they cannot demonstrate that there is not to be an 
interminable repetition of that period, and the actors 
and events that are to signalize it. 

4. It is in the most open and senseless contradic- 
tion to the whole representation of the Scriptures on 
the subject. There is not an intimation in the pro- 
phesies, that indentically the same prediction is in 
any instance to have a double accomplishment. If 
it were expressly taught that judgments and chasten- 
ings foreshown in a prophecy, are to have double, and 
many fulfillments, there would be no means ot know- 



HAVE A DOUBLE FULFILLMENT. 193 

ing when they had reached their end. If the Israel- 
ites may in virtue of the predictions in Hosea, Amos, 
Isaiah and other prophets, be carried into captivity 
a second time, and left in exile through several thou- 
sand years, who can know but that a third captivity 
may follow the second, and a fourth the third, and so 
on forever ? What an impeachment of the truth and 
wisdom of the Most High it is, to impute to him 
such a method of prediction ! 

There are indeed many predictions in the Scrip- 
tures, that the same events in kind are repeatedly to 
occur ; but not one that indentically the same event 
is to take place more than once. Christ foreshowed 
that there were to be wars, earthquakes and famines 
and pestilences ; but they were not to be the same 
individual wars and earthquakes, famines and pesti- 
lences. Though resembling each other in their 
general characteristics, as wars and earthquakes, they 
were not to be identical repetitions of the first in the 
train, to which each belonged. The wars were to be 
between different nations, or at different times, under 
different leaders, and attended with the slaughter of 
different individuals. The earthquakes were not to 
be repetitions of each other, in the same locality, but 
were to have their scene " in diverse places." 

There is to be but one incarnation, one ministry 
one crucifixion, one burial, one resurrection, one 
ascension and glorification of the Son of God. There 
is to be but one corporeal death of the same individ- 

9 



194 THEIR NOTION THAT SOME PROPHECIES 

nal ; one resurrection of the same individual saints 
to life and glory ; and one resurrection of the unholy 
dead to shame and everlasting contempt. And so of 
all other events foreshown in the prophesies, whether 
they are revealed through symbols, or foretold in 
language. There is to be but one series of rulers of 
the western Roman empire symbolized by the beast 
from the sea, Kev. xiii. 1-3 ; there is to be but one 
conquest of that empire by Goths and Yandals from 
the north of Europe or Asia ; there is to be but one 
irruption of Saracens from Arabia under Mahomet 
and diffusion over western Asia, northern Africa, and 
a part of Europe. There is to be but one conquest 
of the same territory by Seljukians, Moguls and 
Turks, and establishment and support of an empire 
for more than 800 years. The seven seals are the 
only seals that are to be broken ; the seven trumpets 
are the only trumpets that are to be blown ; the 
seven vials are the only vials that are to be poured. 
The inflictions foreshown under these last, are, ac- 
cordingly expressly denominated " the last plagues." 
They are not to be duplicated, through an intermina- 
ble series of years. 

5. But such a repetition of that which is foreshown 
by Daniel and John, as this theory contemplates, is 
physically impossible. As well might these writers 
affirm that the whole solar system is to be crowded 
into a single ball of the dimensions of the minutest 
particle of matter of which it consists, as to maintain 



HAVE A DOUBLE FULFILLMENT. 195 

that all the actors, acts, and events, of the last 
twenty-five hundred and fifty years, are to reappear 
in the world in the last 1260 or 1290 days of the 
present dispensation. How can identically the same 
agents, acts, events, and conditions, be repeated, and 
fill the several parts in the last 1260 days of this dis- 
pensation, which they filled in their first advent and 
career in the world ? Is Nebuchadnezzar again to 
conquer Judea, Tyre, Egypt and Syria ; build Baby- 
lon a second time, and a second time be driven from 
the presence of men, and dwell with the beasts of the 
field? Is Belshazzar again to drink wine with his 
courtiers in the vessels that were taken from the 
temple at Jerusalem ; see again the handwriting on 
the wall, and hear his doom from the lips of Daniel ? 
Is Cyrus again to conquer Sardis and Babylon; 
Cambyses to invade Egypt, slaughter its inhabitants, 
overthrow its temples, and deface its sculptures ? Is 
Alexander again to rise and reduce the Median and 
Babylonian empire to his sceptre % Are the Romans 
to appear, a second time, and spread their conquests 
from Britain in the west, to Mesopotamia in the east ; 
and trample down identically the same nations and 
the same individuals, as in their first bloody career ? 
Are the Saracens and Turks once more to overrun 
western Asia and northern Africa, and repeat the 
slaughters and tortures on the same worshipers of 
idols, whom they scourged in their first invasions? 
Is the long succession of popes who have reigned at 



196 THEIR NOTION THAT SOME PROPHECIES, ETC. 



Rome for more than twelve hundred years, with all 
their countless train of priests, monks, and unofficial 
subjects, to reappear and act their parts again in the 
ten kingdoms of western Europe ? For all this, and 
infinitely more, is to be compressed, according to these 
writers, in the last twelve hundred and sixty, or 
twelve hundred and ninety days, of this dispensation. 
"What a monstrous conception ! These parties, how- 
ever, have scarcely turned a glance, it may be pre- 
sumed, to this feature of their theory, though it 
stands out in bold prominence on its front. "Who are 
to be the actors in the fancied literal day-fulfill- 
ment of the predictions that have already taken place 
in the 1260 year-day fulfillment, if not the identical 
persons who acted their part in that year-day accom- 
plishment ? If they are wholly different persons, and 
their acts wholly different acts, they and their agency 
plainly cannot be a second fulfillment — though on a 
smaller scale, of that of the year-day that preceded it. 
The agents, the actions, the events, the sufferings and 
deaths being different, the tragedy itself is manifestly 
as distinct from the first as it is from any other. 
The whole notion is thus an absurd and revolting 
solecism. 



THEIR NOTION THAT MANY SYMBOLS, ETC. 197 



CHAPTEK X. 

Mr. Baxter's Theory that the Symbols taken from the Material World are 
to Appear in their Proper Nature, in a Second Fulfillment, which he 
holds is to take place. 

Mr. Baxter maintains that there is not only to be 
a double fulfillment of most of the prophecies of the 
Revelation, but that there is also to be a fresh sym- 
bolization of the events which they foreshow, con- 
spicuous to the eyes of all ; that is, that the symbols 
that were exhibited to John in vision, are to appear 
in the forms in which he beheld them, and exert the 
acts and produce the effects which he witnessed, as 
they filled their several spheres in his presence. 
Thus, he says in regard to the seventh of the twenty 
events, whose period he affects to determine : 

u Event vii. Commencement of Astounding Physical Phe- 
nomena, such as hail and fire falling on the earth, a third part 
of salt and fresh water becoming blood, and a third part of the 
luminaries being eclipsed. — Rev. vi. 

44 This series of marvellous phenomena continues throughout 
the last nine months of the primary three and a half years, and 
is caused by the first four trumpets. As the first trumpet is 
believed to have been accomplished from about A.D. 250 to 365, 
its corresponding position in the literal-day fulfillment, will bo 
from about the sixteenth of the ninth month of the third year, 



198 THEIR NOTION THAT MANY SYMBOLS ARE TO 

to the eleventh day of the first month of the fourth year (reckon- 
ing from the date of the covenant) ; and during part or the 
whole of this period of nearly four months, literal hail and fire 
mingled with Mood will oe cast on the earth, and tfre third part 
of trees ournt up, and all green grass ournt up. This plague, 
as well as those caused by the other trumpets and by the vials, 
had its counterpart in the plagues inflicted by Moses upon the 
Egyptians, which were evidently intended as types of those yet 
unfulfilled plagues ; and a decisive and unanswerable argument 
is thus afforded against the objections of the unbelieving 
skeptic, who denies the probability of this literal fulfillment of 
Eevelation ; for it is obvious that the deliverance of the 
Israelites out of the hand of Pharaoh, was in all its circum- 
stances, preeminently a type of the far greater deliverance of 
the Christian and Jewish church from the tyranny of the last 
great Antichrist of the time of the final crisis. 

"And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great 
mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea, and the third 
part of the sea became blood ; and the third part of the 
creatures that were in the sea and had life, died ; and the third 
part of the ships were destroyed. The judgment inflicted under 
this second trumpet will continue nearly two months after the 
close of the first trumpet, and culminate in the destruction of 
the ships three or four months before the three and a half years' 
tribulation. Some brilliantly luminous object, as it were a 
burning mountain or pillar of fire, will be cast into the sea, a 
third part of which (that part which is adjacent to Europe) will 
become blood; and as a natural consequence, every living 
creature in the third part which is thus affected, will die, and 
their carcases floating upon the surface of the crimson, blood- 
dyed waters, and breeding pestilence by their insufferable odor, 
will present a spectacle of unequalled horror. All the ships, 
likewise that are in that same third part of the sea, will be 



APPEAR IN THEIR PROPER NATURE ON THE EARTH. 199 

destroyed Subsequent intercommunication between dif- 
ferent countries by sea, will be greatly impeded by this unex- 
ampled destruction of vessels. Wot a few of the gigantic iron- 
plated vessels of war which are now being constructed by France 
and England, will probably be among the ships thus destroyed. 
A larger proportion of French war- vessels may escape, because 
engaged in different quarters of the globe in carrying out 
Napoleon's schemes of universal conquest. 

" ' The great star ' of the third trumpet, he holds, is also lite- 
rally to fall on the rivers and fountains, and ' by its means the 
nauseous flavor of wormwood will be supernaturally imparted 
to all fresh water in the third part of the earth, within which 
all salt water had previously been turned into blood, and the 
infusion of this ingredient, will even poison many men and 
result in their death !' 

" At the fourth trumpet, the third part of the sun, moon and 
stars will be darkened. . . . The date of this phenomenon 
which probably will last a few days, will be about 58 days 
before the 1260 days of infidel persecution, just as the year- 
date of this trumpet in 476, was 58 years before the 1260 years 
of papal dominancy." 

" Thus the first four trumpets are foreshown to commence 
respectively about nine, five, three, and two months before 
Napoleon's three and a half years' reign as Antichrist ; and the 
fearful sights and great signs introduced by them in the heavens 
above, and in the earth beneath, and in the waters under tho 
earth, will give ample warning to mankind of the awful wars 
that are about to follow." — pp. 83-86. 

It is a distasteful task, to transcribe passages 
fraught with such caricatures of the divine word. 
But no one can form a just estimate of the ill-judg- 
uient and presumptuousness of this writer, unless 



200 THEIR NOTION THAT MANY SYMBOLS ARE TO 

made acquainted with the perversions of the symbols 
into which he runs. 

1. He offers not a syllable of proof from the 
prophecy, or from any other quarter, that the sym- 
bols of the Apocalypse are thus to appear on the 
earth, to the eyes of all who dwell in the scene 
which the predictions respect, and act out their seve- 
ral parts, as they acted them when exhibited to the 
prophet in vision. It is a sheer fiction ; a bold 
attempt to fasten on the prophecy a vast train of 
agents and events of which it breathes not a whisper ; 
and will infallibly be rebuked by the Almighty 
Being whose word is thus misrepresented ; as he has 
forewarned those who add unto the things which he 
has revealed. " I testify unto every man that hear- 
eth the words of the prophecy of this book. If any 
man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto 
him the plagues that are written in this book." — Rev. 
xxii. 18. 

2. The pretext that the plagues of the trumpets 
and vials had their counterpart in the plagues in- 
flicted on the Egyptians, and that they were types of 
these Apocalyptic inflictions, is wholly groundless 
and in contradiction to the truth. The plagues of 
Egypt were nearly all unlike those of the trumpets 
and vials. There were no frogs in the trumpets and 
vials ; no conversion of the dust into insects ; no 
swarms of flies ; no murrain on domesticated ani- 
mals ; no blains upon beasts; no locusts that de- 



APPEAR IN THEIR PROPER NATURE ON THE EARTH. 201 

voured vegetation ; no pitch darkness ; no death of 
the first-born. Thus seven of the Egyptian plagues 
had no counterpart whatever in the trumpets and 
vials. Two only of the Apocalypse, were the same 
as those of Egypt, namely, the conversion of water 
into blood, and the descent of hail mingled with fire. 
Another resembled that of the first vial, only, in the 
infliction of boils and blains on man along with 
beasts ; while the ulcers caused by the first vial, were 
a plague only to men. "No one who writes with any 
proper care, would fall into such a serious misrepre- 
sentation. 

He betrays an equal degree of misapprehension in 
the assertion that the plagues of Egypt were types 
of the symbols of the trumpets and vials of the 
Apocalypse. They cannot be types, first, because 
types are only used as representatives of things, the 
future existence of which had been previously re- 
vealed. Thus animal sacrifices were instituted as 
types of the great future Sacrifice, the Lamb of God ; 
but they were instituted after God had revealed to 
our first parents the coming of that great Being to 
take away by his death the sins of the world. Had 
not that futurity first been made known, the animal 
sacrifices that were to be slain, would not have been 
to the offerers types of the coming Redeemer ; and 
so of all other types. But no revelation was made 
at the infliction of the plagues of Egypt, that they 
were types of future plagues that were to be inflicted 

9* 



202 THEIR NOTION THAT MANY SYMBOLS ARE TO 

on the inhabitants of the Roman empire. There was 
no Roman empire then in existence; and no fore- 
knowledge was given to Moses, or any other human 
being, that such a people as the Romans were ever 
to exist. JVext, Things to be types, must be express- 
ly appointed by God to the office they are to fill, and 
that appointment must be made known to those who 
are required to regard them as types. Otherwise 
they cannot be employed in that sphere by those 
who are to use them. To employ them in such a 
relation, without divine authority, is to arrogate the 
prerogative of appointing types, and usurp the place 
that belongs only to him. And, thirdly ', Types are 
never representative of mere visionary existences, 
but only of such as are to have a real, palpable being 
in the world of intelligences. Thus, the animal sacri- 
fices of the old economy, were types of Jesus Christ 
who was a real person, and was to come into the 
world and accomplish his work as our Redeemer by 
his death. The high priest was in like manner in 
his sphere, as the offerer of typical sacrifices, the type 
of the great High Priest who was to offer himself as 
the real sacrifice and expiation for our sins. The 
Holy of Holies in the tabernacle, was in the same 
manner a type of the Holy of Holies in the heavenly 
temple, in which Christ presents his blood, and inter- 
cedes for his people. But the chief symbols of the 
Apocalypse, were not real existences, in the outer 
world, like the earth, the sea, the sun, and moon, but 



APPEAR IN THEIR PROPER NATURE ON THE EARTH. 203 

only had their being in the visions in which they 
were exhibited to the Apostle. To treat them as 
independent and living realities, and assume, that 
because the real waters of Egypt were turned into 
blood, the visionary hail fire and blood of the first 
trumpet, which were mere symbols, are hereafter to 
descend as realities on the Apocalyptic earth, is in 
the grossest manner to contradict their nature and 
sphere. Has the great metallic image beheld by 
Nebuchadnezzar in a dream, had any other being 
than in his vision I Is it hereafter to have a real ex- 
istence on the earth, and meet the gaze and wonder 
of the inhabitants who now dwell in his desolate 
dominions ? Are the wild beasts of Daniel and the 
Apocalypse, that had their being only in visions, at 
a future time to appear on the earth, as genuine and 
palpable realities, and act out again the bloody 
tragedies which they exhibited to Daniel and John 
in the the visions in which they were beheld ? Mr. 
Baxter predicts it. God does not. 



204 THEIR VIEWS OF A COVENANT 



CHAPTER XL 

Their Notion of the Covenant between Louis Napoleon and the Jews. 
Their Views of Antichrist drawn from Ancient Writers. 

Another notion advanced by several of these 
writers with great confidence, is, that in virtue of a 
covenant to be made with Louis Napoleon seven years 
before the close of this dispensation, the Jews are to 
return to Palestine, erect a temple in Jerusalem, a] id 
recommence the offering of sacrifices according to 
the Mosaic ritual ; but that after favoring them in 
that measure for three years and a half, he is then 
to break his covenant with them, take possession of 
the temple by force, preclude them from continuing 
the presentation of sacrifices, and setting both him- 
self and his image in the sacred edifice, persuade or 
compel them to worship him as God. Thus Mr. 
Baxter says : — 

" One of the first objects to which the Jews, who are induced 
by the seven years' treaty to migrate to Jerusalem, and those 
who are already settled there, will naturally turn their attention, 
will be the re establishment of their temple worship, and the re- 
storation of the ceremonies, of the Mosaic ritual. In Daniel viii. 
13, this is foretold to happen 2300 days before the sanctuary is 
cleansed (by Antichrist's destruction at Armageddon,) and as 
the last mentioned event takes place exactly 7 years and 2)£ 



BETWEEN LOUIS NAPOLEON AND THE JEWS. 205 

months after the date of the covenant, it results that the sacri- 
fices will be commenced just 295 days, or nine months and 25 
days after the date of the covenant, and at the distance of 2300 
before the end of the 7 years and 2% months (or 2595 days). 
The passage in Daniel viii. 13, 14, reads thus : ' How long shall 
be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression 
of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be 
trodden under foot V That is to say : How long will the period 
be, during which the sacrifices will be restored, and then after 
their removal, how long will the desolation of the sanctuary 
continue? The answer is, Unto 2300 days; then shall the 
sanctuary ~be cleansed. It is manifest that the sacrifices begin- 
ning 7 months and 25 days after the covenant, will only con- 
tinue for 965 days, or 2 years 8 months 5 days, until the end 
of the first 2>% years, because in the midst of the week of 7 
years, Antichrist will cause the sacrifice to cease . . . and make 
it desolate until the consummation, Dan. ix. 27. The period of 
the subsequent desolation of the temple by the setting up of 
Napoleon's image there, extends over the latter %% years of the 
7 years, and the supplementary 2j^ months (Dan. xii. 7-12, 
Kev. xi. 2, literal fulfillment). Thus 965 of the 2300 days con- 
stitute the period of the daily sacrifice ; and the remaining 1335 
of the 2300 days constitute the period of the desolation of the 
sanctuary by the substitution of the worship of Napoleon's 
image, instead of the sacrifices. The analogy of the year day 
fulfillment of the 2300 days, shows that there probably will be 
a partial renewal of the sacrifices 9 months after the covenant, 
and a partial cleansing of the sanctuary 25 days before the 
consummation. 

"It is said that the Jews consider Mount Moriah upon which 
the Mahometan Mosque of Omar is now standing, to be the only 
proper place for the offering of their sacrifices, in virtue of its 
having been the consecrated site of Solomon's temple ; and the 



206 THEIR VIEWS OF A COVENANT. 

fact of its being in the hands of the uncircumcised, constitutes 
the main impediment to the reinstitution of their sacrificial 
rites. Louis Napoleon's approaching covenant with them, 
will probably permit the conversion of this Mosque of Omar 
into a Jewish temple ; it will then be appropriately fitted with 
altars and sacrificial tables and vessels, and the daily temple 
services will be strictly observed, accompanied with the burn- 
ing of incense, and the slaying of oxen and lambs. (Is. lxvi. 3.) 
It is within their temple that Napoleon is to be worshiped as 
God, (2 Thess. ii.) 3)^ years after the date of the covenant." — 
Pp. 72, 73. 

The same views are presented by Sir Ed. Denny. 

" The prince before named, having for the first three and a 
half years of his time, reigned in peace over the Jews, he now 
at the end of that time throws off the mask, and discovers him- 
self. He had acted as a deceiver at first; and now having 
compassed his object, he shows himself forth as a tyrant. 

" This will be the time of Jacob's trouble. . . when the holy 
city shall be trodden under foot, the abomination of desolation 
set up, and the image of the least, namely, that of the desolator 
himself, shall stand in the holy place, as the object of worship, 
and when all shall be slain who will dare to refuse to worship 
the idol." — Quoted oy Mr. Baxter, p. 200. 

Dr. Tregelles advances the same views in regard to 
the idol, and the persecution of those who refuse to 
worship it : 

" His reign is a time of grievous, and grinding oppression to 
Israel ; his abominable idol (the image of the beast, that the 
false prophet causes both to speak and to breathe, Eev. xiii.), 
being set in the holy place, all who refuse to worship it are the 



THEIR VIEWS OF ANTICHRIST. 207 

objects of his wrath ; death is the doom which their disobe- 
dience receives." — Remarks on Daniel, p. 153. 

Mr. Kelsall, Mr. Beale, Mr. Newton and others, 
give the same sketch of Antichrist and the image. 

The unvarying sameness of the views presented in 
these passages, the similarity of the terms in which 
they are expressed, their enunciation in a dogmatic 
form, and the absence of attempts to verify them 
from the Scriptures, indicate that these writers who 
repeat them with such exactitude, are not the original 
authors of them, but are copyists of one another, or 
of other and earlier commentators. "Why else is it 
that they proceed in announcing their peculiarities, as 
though they were reciting a creed, or repeating a 
pater-noster, advancing exactly the same doctrines in 
the same order, and in the same words, without add- 
ing a fresh thought, or uttering a pulse of emotion ? 
Though, however, most of them maintain a singular 
reticence in respect to the source whence they de- 
rived them, it is admitted and avowed by Dr. Burgh, 
Mr. Maitland, Mr. Newton, Mr. Baxter, and perhaps 
some others, that they are drawn from writers of the 
second, third and fourth centuries ; while nevertheless 
no intimation is given that they had their origin in 
opinions that were wholly mistaken, and that were 
confuted ages since by the non-occurrence of the 
events which, it was held, were to form their fulfill- 
ment ; and that it was for that reason that they were 
soon erased from the faith of the church. Nor is 



208 THEIR VIEWS OP ANTICHRIST 

any question raised by them respecting the validity 
of the opinions which they thus adopt, and their title 
to be received as a true exposition of the predictions 
to which they refer. Their having been held by per- 
sons of eminence in the early ages of the church is 
treated as a proof of their truth ; and the mere re- 
assertion of them as enough to conciliate the assent 
of the reader. They were taken partly from Irenaeus ; 
more largely from Hippoly tus, and in a measure from 
Apollinarius of Laodicea. That they were held in 
part by Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, in Gaul, who was 
a Greek, and flourished toward the close of the second 
century, is seen from the fact, that in his work 
against Heresies, he represented that the worship of 
Antichrist in the temple at Jerusalem was to be in- 
stituted immediately before Christ's second advent, 
and was to be the abomination of desolation foretold, 
Daniel ix. 27, He says : 

" But not only through the things that are spoken, but also 
through those that are to take place under Antichrist, it will he 
shown that "being an apostate and a robber, he wishes to be 
adored as God ; and instead of a servant resolves to be pro- 
claimed a king. For assuming the boldness and art of the Devil 
he will come as though a rightful king ; not, however, as legita- 
matized by subjection to God; but impious, unrighteous and 
without law ; an apostate and a murderer, and repeating in him- 
self the revolt of the Devil. And, indeed, while putting aside 
idols, in order to induce the belief that he himself is God, he 
sets up himself as the sole idol, that they may serve him : It is 
of him that the Apostle speaks, 2 Thess. ii. 3, 4. Paul thus 



DRAWN FROM ANCIENT WRITERS. 209 

clearly proves his apostasy, Ms exaltation of himself above all 
that is called God, or that is worshiped ; that is, above every idol, 
and his attempt to show himself to be God by his tyranny. 

M But I have shown already that no one was ever denomi- 
nated by the Apostles God by virtue of his nature, except Him 
who is truly such, the Father of our Lord, by whose command 
that temple was built in Jerusalem, in which the Adversary 
will sit, aiming to show himself to be Christ."* 

"And in the half of the hebdomad, he says, sacrifice and liba- 
tion shall be taken away ; and the abomination of desolation 
shall be in the temple ; and unto the completion of the time 
the consummation shall be given upon the desolation. How- 
ever, the half of the hebdomad is three years and six months."! 

* Et non tantum autem per ea quae dicta sunt, sed et per ea quae erunt 
sub Antichristo, ostenditur, quoniam existens apostata et latro quasi 
Deus vult adorari, et quum sit servus, Regem se vult prseconari. Ille 
enim omnem suscipiens diaboli virtutem, veniet quasi Rex Justus, nee 
quasi in subjectione Dei legitimus ; sed impius et injustus, et sine lege, 
quasi apostata, et iniquus et homicida, quasi latro diabolicam apostasiam 
in se recapitulans ; et idola quidem seponens, ad suadendum quid ipse sit 
Deus, se autem extollens unum idolum serviant ipsi; de quo Apostolus in 
Epistola quae est ad Thessalonicenses secunda sic ait, ch. ii. 3, 4. Mani- 
feste igitur Apostolus ostendit apostasiam ejus, et quoniam extollitur 
Buper omne quod dicitur Deus ; vel quod colitur ; hoc est super omne 
idolum, (hi enim sunt qui dicuntur quidem ab hominibus ; non sunt autem 
Dei) et quoniam ipse se tyrannico more conabitur ostendere Deum. 

Ostendimus autem in tertio libro, nullum ab Apostolis ex sua persona 
Deum appellari, nisi eum qui vere sit Deus, Patrem Domini nostri ; cujus 
jussu hoc quod est in Hierosolymis, factum est Templum ob eas causas 
quae a nobis dictae sunt, in quo adversarius sedebit, tentans semet-ipsum 
Christum ostendere, sicut Dominus ait — Matth. xxiv. 15. Cum ergo 
videritis abominationem desolationis, quae dicta est a Daniele propheta. 
stantem in loco sancto, — qui legit intelligat. 

t Et in dimidio hebdomadis, ait, tolletur sacrificium et libatio ; et in 
Templum abominatio desolationis ; et usque ad consummationem tem- 



210 THEIR VIEWS OP ANTICHRIST 

M And ten horns, that is, ten kings shall arise, and after them 
shall another rise which shall surpass in evil all that had "been 
before him ; and he shall weaken three kings, and speak against 
the Most High ; and shall think to change times and laws, and 
they shall be delivered into his hand, until a time, times, and 
half a time ; that is, through three years and six months, in 
which coming he shall reign over the earth." — Book iv. c. 25.* 

"And when Antichrist shall have desolated the world, 
through a reign of three years and six months in his seat in the 
temple at Jerusalem, then the Lord shall come from heaven in 
clouds in the glory of the Father, and casting him and those 
who do his will into the lake of fire, he will introduce the just 
to the times of the kingdom, the rest of the holy seventh day."t 

He thus held that Antichrist is to be an individual, 
not a dynasty or succession of men, and that he is to 
seat himself in the temple of God according to the 
prediction, 2 Thess. ii. 3-12, and exhibit himself as 
God ; that that temple is to be at Jerusalem ; that 

poris, consummatio dabitur super desolationem ; dimidium autem heb- 
domadis tres sunt anni et menses sex. — Adversus Haereses, lib. iv., 

C. XXV. 

* El decern cornua Reges exsurgent; et post eos surget alius quae 
superabit mali3 omnes qui ante fuerunt, et Reges tres deminorabit, et 
verba adversus Altissimum Deum loquitur, et cogitabit demutari tempora 
et Legem, et dabitur in manu ejus usque ad tempus, tempora, et dimi- 
dium temp oris ; hoc est per triennium et sex menses in quibus veniens 
regnabit super terram. 

t Quum autem vastaverit Antichristus hie omnia in hoc mundo, regnans 
annis tribus et mensibus sex, et sederit in templo Hierosolymis ; tunc 
veniet Dominus de coelis in nubibus, in gloria Patris ilium quidem et obe- 
dientes ei in stagnum ignis mittens, adducens autem justis Regni tem- 
pora, hoc est requietionem septimam diem sanctificatum. — Jrcnaus Adv. 
Haereses, lib. iv. c. xxv. 



DRAWN FROM ANCIENT WRITERS. 211 

his reign there is to extend through three years and 
a half; and that at its commencement he is to cause 
sacrifice and libation to cease. He utters no intima- 
tion, however, in these passages that Antichrist is also 
to set up his image, or an idol in the temple, and make 
that an object of worship; and the supposition 
of it is unnatural and self-contradictious. He is to 
seat himself in the temple, as Jehovah was seated on 
the Mercy seat in the holy of holies, where his pre- 
sence was attested by the Shekinah, and by voices re- 
sponsive to the requests by the High Priest for instruc- 
tion by Urim and Thummin. Antichrist will, doubt- 
less, in like manner, seat himself, in a sanctum, 
and invest himself not improbably with what will 
seem to beholders at a distance a supernatural light. 
But. to set up his image, or an idol in his presence, 
and allow homage to be paid to that, would be to di- 
vert it from himself, and imply that he is not the 
Supreme and only God, as he is to claim to be. 

But their views are taken in a much larger measure 
from Hippolytus, a Catholic bishop of the third cen- 
tury, who embodied them in a commentary on Daniel, 
which, after having slept unknown to the world for 
ten or twelve centuries, was disinterred from the 
Chisian library two centuries or more ago, and pub- 
lished at Gottingen, in 1774, together with the Sep- 
tuagint of Daniel, and Theodotion's translation of that 
prophet, from Origen's Tetrapla, to which it was ap- 
pended. The following are the principal passages in 



212 THEIR VIEWS OF ANTICHRIST 

which he presents the constructions of Daniel adopted 
by these writers : 

" XXII. For when the sixty-two hebdomads shall have been 
completed and Christ shall have come, and the Gospel shall 
have been every where preached, the times having been 
finished, then one, the last hebdomad, will be left, in which 
Elias will come, and Enoch, and in the middle of it, the abomi- 
nation of desolation will appear, namely, Antichrist, announe- 
ng the desolation of the world. And when he shall have 
come, sacrifice and libation, which are now every where offered 
by the nations to God, shall be taken away.* 

"XXXVIII. The prophet having thus narrated what has 
already taken place and been completed in the times (that have 
passed, c. xi. 1-35), now announces to us another mystery, in- 
dicating the last times. For he speaks thus : ' And there shall 
arise another king, bold and impudent ; and he shall be exalted 
against every God, and shall be magnified, and shall speak 
proudly, and shall prosper until the wrath is completed. But 
Edom shall be saved from his hand, and Moab and the chief 
of the sons of Ammon. And he shall stretch out his hand over 

*XXII. Tcov ya.Q i^xovza 8uo sfidopudcov TzXqooD&Etacov, 
xcu Xgiozov naoayEvopsvov, xcu iov ivayyeXiov ev ticlvxi roizcp 

Xt]gV%&EVTOg, EXXEVCO&6VZCOV TCQV XCUgWP flia ifiSoflCtg 17EQI- 

XEicp&rJGETcu r\ iaxccTtjj ev % nagea'zcu HXiag, xcu Evai^, xcu 
If To) ijfiicsEi avzyg ava^av^aezai to fidtXvyfia tijg igrjfuo- 
CEmg, E(og 6 'Avtlygiatog igfowGiv tea xoapep xctzayytXXcov ' 
ov Tzagayivophov ag&qaszcti dvaia, xcu GnovSq, r\ vvv xazee 
ndvta tonov vno xchv i&vcov ngoacpsgofiEvrj rep Qscp' tov- 
rcov ovzcog Eiotj/xEvcov iztgav ndXiv bnzaalav dirjyEizca ijfiiv 6 
ngoyrjztjg' ovdsv yag ezeqov EfiEgifivqasv , el /ma/ iva niivza. 
axgifiag Exdi8a%&ti ta [is'XXovtct, xcu ijfxag ixdtddoxcov epetv^. 



DRAWN FROM ANCIENT WRITERS. 213 

the land ; and the land of Egypt shall not be safe : for he shall 
have control over the hidden treasures of gold and silver and 
all the precious things of Egypt, and of Lybia, and of Ethiopia 
in all their fortified places.* 

" XXXIX. These things, therefore, the prophet thus related, 
respecting Antichrist, who is to be without shame, eager for 
war, and a tyrant, who, being exalted above all kings and every 
God, will build the city Jerusalem and will erect a temple. 
Him the incorrigible will worship as God, and bend the knee 
to him, conceiving him to be the Christ. He will take off the 
two witnesses and forerunners of Christ who proclaim his glo- 
rious kingdom from heaven, as he said : ' And I will give my 
two witnesses, and they shall prophecy a thousand two hun- 
dred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. As also he had said 
to Daniel, I will confirm the covenant with many one week, and 
it shall be in the half of the week that my sacrifice and libation 
shall be taken away ; so that the one week may be shown to 
be divided into two halves. For the two witnesses preaching 
three years and a half; then the Antichrist during the remain- 
der of the week shall make war on the saints and devastate the 
world, that that which is spoken may be fulfilled — and they 

* XXXVIII. /Jtyytjodfisvog ovv 6 noocpijrijg ra %$q avfi- 
fidvra xal XQ° V0I $ reledivra, ersgov nakiv r\\iiv (ivory qiov 
xazayyilXei, EO^dtoav xaigav noiovfisvog ev8ei^iv y XsyEi yag 
ovzcag' xal avatirrjosrat eiegog ftaoikevg dvaidtjg' xal vxpco- 
[VrjoETcu im ndvra Oebv, xal (lEyalvvftrjoerai, xal XaXrjosi 
vnt'ooyxa, xal xarEv&vrsi, [isxQig ov owtsXtdiQ ooyrj, xal ra 
Qijg ' xai ovroi diaom&rjoovrai ix xeigbg avrov 'Edatfi, xal 
Mwafi, xai doxh vlmv 'Afipwv. Kal ixrsvsi rrjv %ziqcl avrov 
im rrjv yij*>* xal »/ yq Alyvntov ovx lor at elg owrtjolap' xal 
xvQievost iv roig anoxovyoig rov %Qvoiov y xal rov doyvQtov, 
xal naoi roig imQvfiTjroig Alyvnrov, xal Aifyvtav, xal Ai&io- 
Ttcov iv roig 6xvQW[iaoiv avrmv. 



214 THEIR VIEWS OF ANTICHRIST 

shall present the abomination of desolation a thousand two bun* 
dred and ninety days.* 

" XL. Daniel has spoken of two abominations ; one of des- 
truction, and one of desolation. But what is that of destruc- 
tion, unless it be that which Antiochus Epiphanes set there for 
a time ; and what is that of desolation, except that general orie, 
when Antichrist shall have come 

" This king being saluted by the tribes (around Palestine) 
and honored by all, and become the abomination of desolation 
to the world, shall hold the supremacy through a thousand two 
hundred and ninety days. Happy will he be who survives and 
comes to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days. For 
the abomination being come, and war made on the saints, who- 
ever shall pass through his days, and approach the forty-five 

* XXXIX. Tavza plv ovv ovzcog 6 ngoqirjzqg diqyuzai 
7Z8qI zov 'AvziygiGzov, og tGzai dvaidqg, TtoXsftoTQoqiog, xat 
zvgavvog, og vneg ndvzag fiaGiXeig, xa\ ndvza Osbv STzag&sjg, 
ol'Aodofir t 6£i z\v 'IegovGaXrju tzoXiv, xai zbv vaov dvaaz^GEi ' 
rovzep 7iQ06xvv?j6ovGtv d>g 0£<j> ol dntidug, xai zovzcp yovv 
xhvovaiv, vnovoovvzeg avzbv dvai zbv iqigzov - ovzog ateXn 
zovg 8vo fidgzvgag 7 xai ngo8g6(iovg XgiGzov x^gvGGovzag 
tTjv erdo^ov avzov an ovgavmv fiaGiXeiav ' d>g Xty8i ' xai 
dooGco zolg 8vgi \idgzvGi fiov, xcu ngotfiTjzevGovGiv rjfizgag 
%iXiag diaxoGiag i^rjxovza, negtfiefiXijfAtvoi cdxxovg' xaOojg 
xcu T(J Aavvqk siQTjxe ' xcu dia&/jGEi dia&ijxqv noXXoTg, ipdo- 
ftag ftia, xcu 'iazai iv rco fjpiaei zrjg ipdopddog, dg&rjaezai 
[iov t\ dvGia, xcu t\ unovdq, ira deix&V V i"' a sfidopdg tig duo 
[leQi^Ofit'vt] ' zap (itv 8vo ftagzvgmv zgia r\\iiav eztj xrjgvoGov- 
zcopj zov 8s 'AvzixgiGzov, to IniXoinov z^g ipSofxddog zovg 
ayiovg noXefiovrzos, xcu zbv xoGfxov igrmovvtog, ha 7zXtjgco&jji 
to slg7]fittov ' xa\ Saaovvi fidsXvyfia igtjficoGsmg fjpegag %ikia$ 
diaxoGiag hhvr\xovza. 



DRAWN FROM ANCIENT WRITERS. 215 

days, a period of fifty more days arriving, the kingdom of hea- 
ven will come. For the Antichrist comes, and in the course of 
the fifty days that follow, the saints shall inherit the kingdom 
with Christ.* 

XLII. " Who, then, were the two men who stood on the 
bank of the river, unless the law and the prophets ; and who 
was he who stood over the water, but he himself they had for- 
merly predicted : who in the last days, at the Jordan, was 
openly to be testified of by the Father, and pointed out to the 
people by John. They therefore ask him, knowing that all 

* XL. Avo ovv fideXvyfiata Eiorjxs AavvqX, $t> [xep acpa- 
riGfiov, h 8e igr^masmg' zi zb dcpaviGfiOv, aU' r\ 6 egztjgev 
ixEt xaza zbv xaiobv ^Avzioypg ; xal tl zb zr\g EQt][A,03GEojg y 
alX ?] xa&olov cog naqEGzai 6 'Avzi%QiGzog ; xal ovzoi Goody- 
aovzai ex X £l Q°G mvtov, 'Edoofi, xai Mooafi, xai, aQf)\ vIgjv 
'Afipcbv ovzoi yaq eIgiv ol gvved%6[4Evoi avzqj did zrjv Gvyyi- 
vEiav, xal fiaGiXia avzov tiqcozoi avayoQEvovzEg ' ol (jlev 'Edoof* 
eigiv viol 'Haav ol xazoixovvzEg zb ooog ^tjEiq ' Mooafi ds xai 
^A[i[io)iVj ol Ix zoov dvo fivyazEQcav avzov ysyEvvr][A,Evoi f cog xcu 
'Haatag XiyEi' Kal 7isza{)t]Govzai iv nloioig dXXocpvXoov 
■Oakaaaav dfia nqovofiEVGOVGi, xal ol anb drazolwv tjliov, 
xal ol anb dvGfimv, xal (ioQQa, Soogovgi do%av' ol 8e vloi 
'Afificbv ttqwzoi vnaxovGOvzai ' ovzog vn avzcov fiaGilsvg 
avayoQEv&Eig, xal vnb ndvzoov do^a&Elg, xal fidt'lvyfia eqij- 
[iCQGEOjg zq> xoGfiop ysvTjOEig, xoazrJGEi TjfitQag %iliag dtaxoGiag 
EVEvt\xovza' (xaxctQiog 6 vnofxEivag, xai qjOaGag eig tjuzQag 
%i\iag ZQiaxoGiag zpidxovza m'vze' zov yaq ^dslvyfiazog 
TzaoayEvofik'vov, xal noXspovvzog rovg dyiovg, bg dv vnEQ§y 
tag rjHEQag avzov, xal iyyiGrj sig rjfiEQag zEGGaqdxovza tievze, 
EZEQag iyyi^ovGtjg nEVzrjxoGzrig, Ecp&aGEv tj fiaGilEia zcov ovoa- 
voov ' EQ%Ezai fiEv 6 'Avzi'xQtGzog, xal slg pEpog zrjg ttevztJ' 
xoGzrjg, zr\y ds fiaoileiav ol dyioi dfia Xqigzco xXijoovofisir 
ftzllovGi 



216 THEIR VIEWS OF ANTTCHBIST. 

dominion and authority are given to him ; that they may learn 
accurately when he is to institute the judgment in the world, 
and when the things that have "been spoken by him shall be 
fulfilled. And he, desiring to assure them in the most effective 
way, raised his right hand and his left to heaven, and swore by 
him who lives to eternity. "Who swore ? And by whom did 
he sware? The Son manifestly by the Father, saying: The 
Father lives to eternity.* 

XLIII. " Therefore by his act in raising his hands, he showed 
that he spoke in respect to the time, times, and half a time, 
when the dispersion of the Israelites is to be finished, indicating 
the three and a half years of Antichrist. For he calls time a 
year, and times two years, and half a time, half a year. They 
are the thousand two hundred and ninety days which Daniel 
had spoken of before, when the tribulation shall be consum- 

* XLII. Tiveg ovv r\Gav ol dvo dvdqeg ol eGzwzeg naqd 
to %eTXog tov 7tota[iov f d)X 1} 6 vopog, xal ol nqcoq^zai; 
xal tig t]v 6 iatmg endvco tov vdazog, ei (itj avzbg ovzog 
neql ov avzoi ndXai nqoexyjqv^av ; og epeXXev en eG^dtcov 
inl tqj 'Iogddvri tpaveqoog vnb tov natqbg [xaqzvgeiG&at, xal 
vnb 'Iadvvov to) Xaoj naQQtjcria, deixvvG&ai ' 6 to xdotv tov 
yqajifiateoog neql t\v oacpvv cpe'qwv, xal to fiaddlv tov noixi- 
7.ov %it<nva evdedvps'vog ' ovtoi ovv nvv&dvovzat avzov 
eidozeg, on avta} ido&ij ndaa aq^rj x«« i^ovaia ' iva [td&oDGt 
naq avzov axqifiatg note fie'XXei indyeiv to? xoGficp t\v xqiGtv, 
xal note ta vn avtov XeXaXrjfieva nXrjqco&^Getai ' 6 6e xata, 
ndvta tqonov nei&eiv tovtovg povXopevog inyoe trjv de^idv 
avtov, xal trjv dqiGteqdv tig tov ovqavbv, xal couoae xazcc 
tov Joaf70$ eig tov aiava' tig xata tivog apocev ; vlbg 
dqXovozi xaza tov natqbg, XeycoV ozi fj 6 nazijq eig tov 
aimva, ei fitj eig xaiqbv, xal xatqovg t xal r^iGv xatqov, iv to} 
GvvzsXeG&rjvai dtaGxoqmGpbv yvwGovzai tavza ndvta. 



DRAWN FROM ANCIENT WRITERS. 217 

mated, and the dispersion finished, Antichrist being come. In 
those days all these things shall be known ; and from the time 
of the removal of the daily sacrifice, a thousand, two hundred 
and ninety days are to be computed : iniquity shall abound even 
as the Lord said : because iniquity shall abound, the love of 
many shall become cold."* 

XLIY. " For there is no doubt that when a sinister change 
takes place, dissensions will be generated. But contensions 
arising, love will grow cold. And the saying also : ' Happy he 
who shall endure, and shall come to the thousand three hun- 
dred and thirty -five days,' is instructive and consolatory; as 
the Lord said : ' But he that endureth unto the end, shall be 
saved;' for it implies that we are not by any means to expect a 
universal change to coldness and aversion, but that iniquity is 
not to be so increased, that the abomination of desolation, that is 
the antagonist and rival, may be able to seize (the place to 
which he aspires). He also said to one : ' Until evening ;' that 
is until the completion. And ' Until morning.' 1 What is morn- 
ing ? The day of the resurrection ; for it is the beginning of 
another age, as the dawn is the beginning of day. For the 

* XLIII. To ovv ixzuvou avrbv zag dvo %tioag, oY c/Jjzov 
zb nd&og t8et%e zb ds zlnuv dg xcuobv, xcu xaiqovg, xcu 
r\\iiGv xougov iv to5 GvvzelsG&tjvai diaGxooTUGpbv, zc\ zoia 
t^iigv ixn zov 'Avzi%qigtov icr^ave ' xcuqbv yaq Xzysi iviav- 
zbv, xcu xcunovg de dvo sin, tj[hgv de xcuqov qpiGv iviavzov' 
avzat ugiv al yiXiai diaxoGicu ivsvqxovza rnxiqai, ag nooeins 
Au.vir[k iv zaj GvvzeXeG&rjvcu zb ndOog, xou yevEG&ou dia- 
GxoomGfibv TzaQovzog zov *Avzi%QiGzov • iv zctig Tjfizocug ixsi- 
vaig yvcoGOvzai zavza ndvza, xcu anb xcuqov 7zaQaXXd^eco5 
zov itd£).e%iGuov, xcu zb tj^igai yihou diaxoGicu ivtvqxovza 
\prj(pt£6/A£vov iGzi' TiXn&vv&rJGEzai ?] avofiia, xa&oog xcu 6 
8eG7zozng Xsyet ' diet, zb 7i).?]&vvOtjvcu z\v avOpiav, xpvyrJGtzcu 
i] dydnn i<av nolltov. 



218 ANTIOCHUS NOT A TYPE OF ANTICHRIST. 

thousand four hundred days, are the light (are to extend to the 
light) of the world. For when the light shall shine in the 
world, Christ himself having said: 'I am the light of the 
world,' the Sanctuary shall he cleansed. Those words the ad- 
versary has also spoken, and applied them to himself. But the 
holy place is not by any means to be cleansed, until he has 
been disarmed of his power." * 

Thus nearly all the peculiar constructions of Daniel 
by Dr. Tregelles, B. "W. Newton, Sir Edward Denny, 
Baxter and others, are found in Hippolytus : 

1. That writer held that the proud and impious 
king of Daniel xi. 36, is the Antichrist ; and also, 
like others of that age, that he is to be an individual ; 
not a class or series of persons. 

* XLIV. On yao t7]g 7zaou).Xdl;e(og ysvofisvrjg za c%t- 
Ofiata yeyovev, ovx aftqifiolov ' tav ayiaftdzcov ds ysvo^ievoov 
7T8\pvxzai r\ dyanr\ ' xai to paxdoiog 6 VTZOfieipctg, xcu 
qi&dcag ijfxsQag yiXiag tqiaxoaiag tgidxovza. nt'vze, sazi %Qq- 
atbv, oog sItzbv 6 dsc7z6z?]g, 6 ds vnofidvag slg tsXog ovrog 
ccQ&qaezai' xa& oXov zolvvv ttjv TzoQaXXa^iv fit] TTaoads^co- 
HS&a, iva firj t) dvoixla aXq&vv&ri, xai xazaXdfirj to fids- 
Xvypa, z~r\g EQ^ucoascog' rovziaziv 6 dvzixslfxsvog' xai el/zsv 
avtcp tag SGnt'oag' tovrtazt (itygi ttjg ovvzeXeiag, xai nQoai* 
onto iazt 7tqcqi ; fj fataa tr\g dvaazdascog ' ciQ'lh ydo saztv 
8Z8Q0V aiavog, cog doy/i fj^eoag, ?) now'tvy ' to ds tjfisgac 
%{Xiai tezgaxoaiai, eazi cpwg xoafiov ' tov ydg ymzbg cpaviv- 
tog iv tco xoGftcp, tov dnovzog iycb el t ui to qiojg tov xoapov, 
xa&agia&tjGszai to dyiov cog etg?]xsv y 6 dvzixsipsvog ' ovda- 
pong ydg xaOagiXszai to dyiov, \Cr\ ixsivov xazagyrj&svzog. 



PAEALLEL OF ANTIOCHUS AND ANTICHRIST. 219 

2. He held that he is to be exalted above all kings, 
and is to arrogate a supremacy above God ; and 
these are points that are authorized by the prophecy 
and the New Testament. But much that follows is 
fictitious and mistaken. 

3. Such as that that king is to rebuild Jerusalem. 

4. That he is to erect a temple there. 

5. That he will receive in it the homage of the 
wicked, as though he were God. 

6. That his worshipers are to regard him as the 
Messiah. 

7. That the two witnesses are to be of the same 
period as Antichrist. 

8. That Antichrist is to confirm a covenant with 
many at Jerusalem for one week. 

9. That he is to take away the daily sacrifice and 
oblation. 

10. That in the last half of the last week, he is 
to persecute the saints, and put the witnesses to 
death. 

11. That he is to introduce the abomination of 
desolation into the temple. 

12. And that while time is a year, times two years, 
and half a time half a year, the period denoted by 
the three years and a half is merely the number of 
days that are embraced in three and a half years ; 
and that the 1260, 1290, and 1335 days, stand solely 
for the number of days which they literally ex- 
press. 



220 PARALLEL OF ANTIOCHUS AND ANTICHRIST. 

13. Dr. Tregelles, Mr. Baxter and others affirm 
expressly, that Antichrist is to make a league or com- 
pact with the Jews for seven years, and is to break it 
in the middle of the seventieth week. Hippolytns 
implies that he is to make a covenant with them, 
inasmuch as he represents that he is to confirm one, 
which must therefore first be made, in order that a 
confirmation of it may take place. 

14. He implies, also, that Antichrist is to break 
the covenant; as he affirms that he is, in the last half 
of the last week, to persecute the saints and slay the 
witnesses of Jesus. 

15. Several of the writers I have cited, exhibit 
Antichrist as setting up his image in the temple as an 
object of worship ; and treat that as the abomination 
of desolation. Hippolytus expresses no such notion, 
but like Irenseus, represents Antichrist himself as the 
object of homage, and as the abomination that makes 
desolate. 

It was held, however, by Apollinarius of Laodicea, 
that he was to set his image in the temple, as I shall 
show on a later page ; where I shall also point out the 
false grounds on which that writer, Hippolytus, and 
others, founded their belief that the 1260 and 1290 
days were the measure of Antichrist's career, and 
ascribed to him the erection of a temple at Jerusalem, 
his setting himself or his image in it, and becoming 
thereby the abomination of desolation. 



PARALLEL OF ANTIOCHUS AND ANTICHRIST. 221 

Those ancient views are thus, in their main par- 
ticulars, an exact parallel of those reproduced by 
these modern writers. As, however, those who have 
recently discussed the subject have treated it very 
much as though the opinions they advance were the 
result of their own independent inquiries, I shall 
proceed to scan them as I should were I not cognizant 
of the fact, that they are not their original authors. 



222 THE ERROR OF THEIR NOTION OF A LEAGUE 



CHAPTEK XII. 

The Error of their notion of a League between Louis Napoleon and tho 
Jews — Their false Construction of Daniel ix. 27 — The Principles on 
which Symbols are used — Time as a Symbol employed in the relation 
of Analogy. 

These writers proceed in their representations on 
the assumption that Louis Napoleon is what they 
call the seventh, or as some of them hold, the eighth 
head of the beast from the sea. Rev. xiii. xvii. 
But I have shown that there is now no power answer- 
ing to the seventh head of that symbol ; nor is there 
ever again to be. Neither is there ever to be an 
eighth head. The imagination that he is represented 
by that symbol is a mere delusion. 

They proceed also on the assumption, and repeat 
it page after page, that Louis Napoleon was to make 
a covenant with the Jews at the latest this or the last 
year, for seven years, in virtue of which that people 
are to return to Palestine. But I have proved that 
there is no ground whatever in the prophecy for such 
a pretense. 

I will now show that there are no indications of a 
disposition either in Louis Napoleon or in the Jews, 
so far as is known, to (inter into a treaty of that na- 



BETWEEN LOUIS NAPOLEON AND THE JEWS. 223 

ture with each other ; and moreover, that it is not 
possible, unless the most gigantic miracles are 
wrought, that such a stupendous measure as their 
theory contemplates, should be accomplished in the 
period assigned by these writers of seven years from 
1863, 1864, or 1865. 

1. There are certainly no public indications thus 
far, that Louis Napoleon is negotiating or contem- 
plating a treaty with the Jews, by the stipulations 
of which he is to aid them in returning to their 
national land, reestablishing themselves there as a 
distinct and sovereign people, rebuilding their tem- 
ple, and reinstating their sacrificial worship. Not a 
whisper of such a negotiation has reached the ear of 
the political or ecclesiastical writers of France, Eng- 
land, Germany, or this country. There is not the 
slightest preparation in the minds of that people for 
such a measure. A hint that he is contemplating it, 
would raise a shout of ridicule from both Jews and 
Gentiles. 

2. Before a measure of that kind can be carried 
into effect, either the Jews must acquire a title to the 
civil dominion of Palestine, and probably also to the 
soil ; or else Louis Napoleon must be prepared to put 
them in possession of it by conquest. But how is he 
to conquer Palestine ? He is not at war with the 
Porte. Is he to plunge into a conflict with that 
power, in order that he may seize Palestine and make 
a present of it to the Jews ? He is not in the habit 

10 



224 THE ERROR OF THEIR NOTION OF A LEAGUE 

of giving away territory without an equivalent. Will 
the Jews consent to return, if, in place of an indepen- 
dent nation, they are to be only the colonists of Na- 
poleon, and subject to any measure of despotism 
which he may please to exercise over them ? 

3. On the supposition that Louis Napoleon should 
enter into such a treaty, and make arrangements to 
send forces to conquer Palestine that he might con- 
stitute it a dependence on France ; is it likely that he 
would be allowed to carry out bis scbemes of con- 
quest and self-aggrandizement, without obstruction ? 
Would Turkey tamely acquiesce in the robbery of 
such a province, the transference of which to the 
hands of a powerful and ambitious people, would en- 
clanger the whole of the eastern portion of the em- 
pire ? If France were master of Palestine, how long 
would it be before Syria, and Mesopotamia would fall 
into her grasp ? How loDg before the great Mediter- 
ranean islands and the commercial ports on the 
northern shores of that sea, would be seized that she 
might be mistress of its waters? Would Russia, 
would England, would Austria, would Italy even, 
stand an unconcerned spectator of such a stride in 
power without interfering to check and intercept it ? 
No man of sense will believe it. They must become 
the vassals of Napoleon before it can be possible. 
But if he is to wait till he has conquered all the great 
antagonist powers of Europe, Mr. Baxter's seven 
years from 1863, 1864, or 1865 will be likely to have 



BETWEEN LOUIS NAPOLEON AND THE JEWS. 225 

run their course before Napoleon will reach a 
point at which he can migrate with his forces to 
Palestine, to bring that region under his sceptre, that 
he may present it as a heritage to the Jews. 

4. But suppose all tliis should be achieved after 
four, five, or six years of bloody struggles — and that 
the Jews of western and northern Europe should, in 
large numbers, be disposed to remove to Palestine 
under the guardianship of Louis Napoleon, the trans- 
portation of one or two millions of persons of all ages, 
to a land that is a desert, without crops, without herds 
or nocks, without forests, without mines, without roads, 
without cities, without habitations, without ports, is 
not to be the work of a few weeks, a few months, nor 
a few years. Ten, twelve, or fifteen would be a very 
moderate period for it. And who is to pay the 
expense of such a migration ? Half, probably two- 
thirds, perhaps the whole of the property of a million 
and a half of the Jews who, would be likely to 
remove in the first six or eight years, would be in- 
adequate to meet the requisite expenditure. Will 
Louis Napoleon empty his purse for their accommo- 
dation ? "Will England unbar her treasures for their 
relief? Will Austria or Prussia be disposed to 
pay enormous charges to weaken themselves and 
strengthen the emperor of France by transporting 
their subjects on a vast scale to a territory 
that is under his jurisdiction ? These considera- 
tions are sufficient to show that whatever else may 



226 THEIR FALSE VIEWS OF DANIEL VIII. 13, 14. 

happen, it is not within the sphere of likelihood nor 
possibility that the transference of such a body of 
human beings from the west of Eurof>e and the south 
of Eussia, to Palestine, in such conditions as to shield 
them from famine, pestilence, and death, could be 
accomplished in so short a period as that which re- 
mains, according to the speculations of these writers, 
before this dispensation will reach its close, and the 
Son of God reveal himself in the clouds of heaven. 
Whatever else may or may not take place, the pre- 
dictions and asseverations of these authors cannot be 
verified in that brief time, nor come within manv 
vears of a verification. 

m 

5. The attempts of these writers to authenticate 
their theory by passages from Daniel and John, are 
marked by the grossest mistakes and misrepresenta- 
tions. 

Tims Mr. Baxter alleges, Daniel viii. 13-14, as 
equivalent to the question : How long will the period 
be, during which the sacrifices will first be restored / 
and then after their removal [how long will] the deso- 
lation of the sanctuary continue? Xo misconception 
could be greater. In the first place there is not a 
syllable in the passage in regard to a restoration 
of sacrifices. That is a sheer interpolation by Mr. 
Baxter and his coadjutors ; and with its fall their 
whole construction vanishes into air. 

In the next place, the prophecy, chapter viii., is 
not a language, but a symbolical prophecy. As the 






THEIR FALSE VIEWS OF DANIEL VILT. 13, 14. 227 

ram and goat were symbols of monarchs, and their 
acts were representative of acts those monarchs were 
to exert ; as the four horns that came up in the place 
of the great horn that was broken ; and the little horn 
that sprung up from beneath one of the four, were 
also symbols of kings ; and the acts of the little horn 
which waxed great to the host of heaven, and cast 
some of the stars to the ground, and magnified it- 
self against the prince of the host, and took away the 
daily sacrifice, and cast down the place of his sanc- 
tuary, are symbolical ; so the daily sacrifice and the 
sanctuary were symbols, and only symbols. The tak- 
ing away the sacrifice was also a symbol of a differ- 
ent act ; and the casting down of the sanctuary was 
a symbol in like manner of a different but analogous 
event. That accordingly which is foreshown, is not 
at all, as Mr. Baxter imagines, the taking away of 
literal sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem, and the 
casting down of the temple itself. ISTo fancy could 
be more false and contradictory to the principles on 
which the symbols are used. But the events that are 
predicted through those symbols, and the acts of the 
little horn in regard to them, are first the analogous 
acts of the Roman civil and priestly power, in the 
empire, in taking away the expiation -of Christ which 
the sacrifices offered on the altar typified, and substi- 
tuting the Mass and other false rites and works in its 
place. And next, the analogous act of casting down 
and desecrating the edifices that were erected by true 



228 THEIR FALSE VIEWS OF DANIEL VIII. 13, 14. 

believers for the worship of God, or appropriating 
them to secular uses, or to the homage of creatures 
and idols. Mr. Baxter's construction is thus totally 
false. He does not even discern what the subject is 
of the prediction. He can no more show that the 
daily sacrifices and the sanctuary are used in a literal 
sense — not as symbols — than he can prove that the 
little horn, its waxing great to the host of heaven, 
which is interpreted as the stars, and casting some of 
those orbs to the ground, and stamping on them, are 
not symbols. Will he venture to maintain that the 
goat on whose head the little horn stood is hereafter 
to appear in Persia ; and that Daniel is to be present 
and behold it ; that that horn is to wax great, even so 
as to reach the stars of heaven, which are thousands 
of millions of miles distant, and is to cast some of 
them down to the earth and trample on them ? He 
may, indeed, be guilty of that violation of the pro- 
phecy ; as he asserts, without a blush, that the sym- 
bols of the seals, trumpets and vials, are all yet to 
manifest themselves on the earth, and act again the 
parts they performed when the prophet beheld them 
in vision ; but his misconception will not divest the 
prophecy of its genuine meaning, nor give any color 
of truth to the views he maintains. Let the reader 
consider what revolting impossibilities and monstrosi- 
ties he must accept and undertake to vindicate, if he 
takes this writer as his guide, who thus mutilates and 
falsifies the word of God, when an expedient presents 



THEIR MISREPRESENTATION OF DANIEL IX. 27. 229 

itself that promises to yield him the support he needs 
to sustain his theory. 

A similar mistake is made by Dr. Tregelles, who 
attempts to confirm his construction of Daniel ix. 27, 
by Daniel vii. Thus, he says : 

" The character of this period of three years and a half is to 
be specially gathered from chapter vii., in which mention is 
made of a time, times and a half, and also from the forty and 
two months, 1260 days, etc., which are spoken of in the book 
of Revelation. 

" The identity of the time, times and a half, of chapter vii., 
with the last half week of this chapter, might almost be taken 
for granted — the proof, however, is simple ; the horn in chapter 
vii. acts in blasphemy and persecution, until the Lord Jesus and' 
his people take the kingdom ; the three years and a half run on 
to that point.; here in this chapter the whole period of seventy 
weeks issues in the absolute and established blessing of Israel, 
Daniel's people ; — the week of this covenant is the last portion 
of the seventy weeks, and the half week after the sacrifice is 
taken away is the latter portion of that week. Thus the period 
in chapter vii. and the concluding period before us run on to the 
same point ; — they are also equal in duration ; hence they begin 
at the same time, and are altogether identical. If we would 
form a just estimate of the events of the last half week, we 
must gather it from chapter vii. ; here we have the same power 
in the local connexion with Jerusalem." — Remarks on Daniel, 
p. 104, Edition of 1864. 

A most extraordinary misconception, surely! What 
can transcend the fallacies on which it proceeds, and 
the sweeping denial with which it is fraught, of the 
laws of the prophecy, and all the great revelations 



230 THEIR MISREPRESENTATION OF DANIEL IX. 27. 

that are made in it ! As Dr. Tregelles holds a high 
rank as a scholar in an important sphere of sacred 
learning, and many may acquiesce in his opinions 
without examining the grounds on which they rest, 
and their bearing on the teachings of the prophecy, 
let me invoke attention to his assumptions and rea- 
sonings in this passage. Nothing can be more evi- 
dent than that he has not a true understanding of the 
nature and laws of symbols, but proceeds on grounds 
that subvert the meaning of every prediction in the 
seventh of Daniel; and those not less which the 
Spirit of God himself interprets, than those which 
are left unexplained. He falls into the singular 
error first of assuming, without proof, and against 
fact, that the meaning of Daniel ix. 27, is what he 
affirms it is / and then assumes and asserts that that 
meaning is identically the same as that of those por- 
tions of Daniel vii. to which he refers as proving it. 

1. In respect to Dan. ix. 27, he assumes that the horn 
spoken of, Daniel vii. viii., is the same as the prince 
that was to come, Daniel ix. 26, whose period he as- 
signs to what he holds is Daniel's seventieth week, 
and maintains is yet future. Having made this as- 
sumption, he then proceeds to represent, without 
proofs that what is said of the horn, ch. vii., is said 
of the prince, .ch. ix. 26. 

2. He next assumes and maintains that the time, 
times and a half of Daniel vii. are identical with the 
last half week of ch. ix. 27. — Remarks, jp. 103. 



THEIR MISREPRESENTATION OF DANIEL IX. 27. 231 

3. He assumes and affirms, without proof, that the 
seventieth week of Daniel is the last week of this 
dispensation, and is yet future ; and he asserts, that 
what is said in Daniel vii. 25, is also said in Daniel 
ix. 27. 

4. He assumes and declares, without proof, that 
the blasphemies and persecutions which he ascribes 
to the prince, whom he holds is to make a covenant, 
are identically the same as to the perpetrator of them, 
their nature, their time, and the persons who are 
affected by them, as those are which are spoken of in 
ch. vii. as on the one hand persecuting, and on the 
other suffering persecution. 

A number of the points he thus assumes I have 
already shown are not only not proved by him, nor 
by any who concur with him in opinion, and cannot 
be proved to have any authority from the prophecy, 
but are in utter contradiction to the most indisputable 
and essential of its teachings. Such are the notions 
that the prince who, according to Dr. Tregelles, is to 
make a covenant, is the same identical person or 
power as the little horn, Daniel vii. 9-12 ; that that 
personage is to make a covenant ; and that the seven- 
tieth week of Daniel is future and is to end at the same 
moment as the time, times' and a half of Daniel vii. 25. 
From all this it is clear that the question whether 
his construction is correct or not, turns upon the ques- 
tion, what the principles are on which symbols are 
used, and what the laws are by which they are to be 

10* 



232 THE PRINCIPLES OE SYMBOLIZATION. 

interpreted ? "What, then, are those principles ? "What 
is the relation in which the symbols in question of 
Daniel vii. and viii. are used ? Do they represent 
things exactly like themselves, or are they used on 
the ground of analogy to symbolize things of a dif- 
ferent but a resembling; class ? If the latter is the 
relation in which they are used, then Dr. Tregelles' 
whole scheme falls. For he assumes that the time, 
times and a half of Daniel vii. 25 are not employed 
to denote a longer period than they themselves liter- 
ally express ; but are used to represent that identical 
number — namely, twelve hundred and sixty days, of 
which they themselves consist. For he says, and re- 
peats the averment, that the period of Daniel vii. 
and the last half week of Daniel ix. 27 are exactly 
equivalent to each other ; that they began at the 
same moment, run parallel with each other through- 
out their course, and thence terminate at the same 
time. He therefore specifically denies that the time, 
times and a half, of Daniel vii. 25, are used as sym- 
bols, on the principle of analogy, to represent a 
ionger period than themselves. Now, if he is wrong 
here — totally wrong, then his whole scheme falls. If 
he is right, then the prophecy falls. I may justly say 
there is no other question in the whole sphere o'f her- 
meneutics of greater significance than this. Not 
only the credibility of the prophecy, but the wisdom 
and truth of Jehovah himself, are involved in the 
issue. For, as he has testified in the most specific 



LAWS ON WHICH SYMBOLS ARE USED. 233 

and emphatic form in many instances, that symbols 
like those of Daniel vii. 7-8, 17-20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 
are used in the relation of a general resemblance to 
signify agents, acts and events of a different nature 
and sphere from themselves ; if they are not em- 
ployed in that relation, then his own testimony em- 
bodied in the interpretation given of them by the 
revealing Spirit is convicted of error, and the glory 
of his wisdom and truth are overshadowed and ex- 
tinguished. 

For the angel who, under the promptings of the 
Spirit, interpreted the symbols which the prophet 
had beheld, said : "These great beasts which are four, 
are four kings, or successions of kings, which shall 
arise in the earth," v. 17. The four beasts are thus 
explained in the prophecy itself as symbols of agents 
of a different order from themselves; and on the 
ground of analogy ; for there is a general likeness 
between wild beasts that prey on inferior animals, 
and cruel and bloody tyrants who slaughter and 
crush their fellow men. And this interpretation 
given by the Spirit of God exemplifies five of the 
fundamental laws of symbolization ; first, that agents 
always represent agents, not acts, effects, or condi- 
tions; next, that living agents always represent 
living agents ; thirdly, that when the symbols bear 
an analogy to that which they represent, they are 
used to denote agents or things that differ from them- 
selves 5 fourthly, that a single living agent sometimes 



234: LAWS ON WHICH SYMBOLS ARE USED. 

symbolizes a great number of analogous agents, as in 
this instance a single beast represented thousands 
and myriads of human beings ; and fifthly, that the 
acts of the symbols represent the acts of the agents 
whom the symbols denote. The angel interpreted 
the horns on the same principle. " And the ten 
horns are ten kings that shall arise; and another 
shall rise after them ; and he shall be diverse from 
the first, and he shall subdue three kings." Here the 
symbol, the horn of a strong animal through which 
it exerts its power of defence and aggression, and 
which stands in a relation to the whole animal, like 
that of a king to the organized body of officials of 
which he is the chief, is used as a symbol, not of a 
mere horn like itself, but of an armed, brave, and 
powerful monarch, as the master of the civil and 
military organization of which he is the head. 

In like manner, the acts of the horn that spake 
great things, and made war with the saints, and 
wore out the saints of the Most High, are symbolical, 
and represent acts of the persons denoted by the 
little horn, that are of a different kind, but are as 
suitable to the spirit and sphere of those persons, as 
the acts of the horn in the vision were to its office 
as a horn. The interpretation given, ch. viii., of the 
ram and goat, their horns and their acts, proceeds on 
the same principle. " The ram which thou sawest 
having two horns denotes the kings of Media and 
Persia ; and the rough goat is the king of Grecia, and 



THE LAWS OF SYMBOLS OF TIME. 235 

the great horn that is between his eyes, is the first 
' king. Kow that being broken, whereas four stood 
up for it, four dynasties shall stand up out of the 
nation, but not in his power. The little horn that 
sprung up under one of the four horns, and waxed 
great to the host of heaven, and cast down some of 
the stars, is also interpreted as symbolizing a king of 
fierce countenance that should stand up in the latter 
times of the four horns, be of great power, destroy 
wonderfully, and waste the mighty and the holy 
people," v. 20-25. 

This, then, is beyond all question the principle on 
which symbols of the kind here used are employed. 
It is made certain not only by the analogy that ob- 
viously subsists between animals of such gigantic size, 
such power, and such destructive instincts, and the 
kings and inferior civil and military officials whom 
they represent ; but by the testimony of God him- 
self. It is not to be denied, therefore, set aside, nor 
overlooked. It cannot be set aside without an im- 
peachment of God and his truth. 

But time, when used as a symbol, is also employed 
in this relation of analogy to a greater period of 
time, and in this relation only. All the periods used 
as symbols of time are periods of days, or else weeks, 
months and years which are made up of days ; the 
twenty-four hour periods of the earth's revolution on 
its axis, and bear an analogy to years, which are 
periods of the earth's movement round the sun. The 



236 THE LAWS OF SYMBOLS OF TIME. 

fact, therefore, that days stand in that relation to 
years, each being determined and measured by a 
motion of the earth, is an indubitable proof that days 
when employed as symbols, are symbols of time of a 
greater but an analogous length. To deny it, is as 
unwarrantable, as it would be to deny that when a 
powerful, fierce and carniverous beast is employed as 
a symbol, it is employed as a symbol of fierce, 
bloody and domineering conquerors and destroyers of 
men. 

And finally, this is confirmed by the fact that days, 
it is shown* by the testimony of the Scriptures them- 
selves, are in several instances used as symbols of an 
equal number of years. Thus Moses said : " As for 
you, your carcases shall fall in the wilderness, and 
your children shall wander in the wilderness forty 
years. . . After the number of the davs in which 
ye searched the land — forty days — each day for a 
year ; shall ye bear your iniquities." — Num. xiv. 
32-34. 

God employed a day for a year also in the sym- 
bolic acts which he enjoined on Ezekiel iv. 4r-6 : " Lie 
thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of 
the house of Israel upon it, according to the number 
of the days that thou shalt lie upon it, thou shalt 
bear their iniquity. For I have laid upon thee the 
years of their iniquity, according to the number of 
the days, three hundred and ninety days. So shalt 
thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And 



THE LAWS OF SYMBOLS OF TIME. 237 

when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy 
right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of Judah 
forty years. I have appointed thee a day for a year 
— a day for a year." 

We have thus, in these three instances of the use 
of days, as representatives of a greater time, a speci- 
fic announcement that they are employed as symbols 
of a corresponding number of years ; and the reason 
undoubtedly is that a day presents an analogy to a 
year, that no other period bears, namely, that it is 
measured by a revolution of the earth on its axis ; 
while a year is determined and measured by a revo- 
lution of the earth round the sun. 

The seventy weeks of Daniel also, it is known from 
the events of which they were the measure, are em- 
ployed as expressing a number of years that corres- 
ponds to the days of seventy weeks. Expositors and 
chronologers, Hebrew, Greek, Catholic and Pro- 
testant, without, so far as I am aware, an exception, 
put that construction on them ; and its truthfulness 
is verified by the fact that 483 years intervened be- 
tween the event from which the seventy weeks are 
dated — the decree of Artaxerxes Longimanus, king 
of Persia, in his twentieth year. — ~Neh. ii. 1. author- 
izing the rebuilding of Jerusalem — and Christ's en- 
trance on his ministry ; and three years and a half 
from the commencement of his ministry to his death, 
which took place, according to the prophecy, three 
years and a half before the close of the seventieth 



238 THE LAWS OF SYMBOLS OF TIME. 

week. This Dr. Tregelles cannot deny without con 
tradicting the clearest teachings of the prophecy. 

For if he maintains that the time, times and a half 
are not used as denoting a period that differs from 
themselves, he must for the same reason maintain 
that the four great beasts do not represent agents 
that differ from themselves, and imply that all 
symbols drawn from the animal and the material 
world, represent agents or things, acts or effects, 
that are an exact copy of themselves. How can he 
any more show that time, times, and a half, are not 
employed as symbols of periods that differ in length 
from themselves, than he can that a winged lion, a 
bear, a leopard, a monster brute, a ram, a goat, are 
not used to represent agents that differ in nature 
from themselves ? The diversity between ]STebuchad- 
nezzar, with the subordinate officials civil and military 
of which he was the chief, and the winged lion, by 
which that vast organization of human beings was 
symbolized, was not greater or more imposing for such 
agents, than the diversity is between twelve hundred 
and sixty years, and the twelve hundred and sixty 
days which are their representative : for the period 
represented is three hundred and sixty times greater 
than that which symbolizes it. If he adheres to his 
construction of the times, months, and days of Daniel, 
lie must for the same reason adhere to that principle 
in his interpretation of the great animal symbols of 
that prophet, and hold that they foreshow that 



THE LAWS OF SYMBOLS OF TIME. 239 

identically such monsters were, or are to appear on 
the earth, and act the parts that are ascribed to 
them, and that they indicate nothing more. 

Will he, then, like Mr. Baxter, take that ground ? 
Will he affirm that a lion, having eagle's wings, will 
rise out of the Persian or Mediterranean Sea, and 
enter Eabylonia ; that it will employ itself in seizing 
and devouring all the inferior animals of Media, 
Assyria, Syria, Tyre, Palestine, Egypt, and western 
Arabia; and that its wings after a time being 
plucked, it will be made to stand up as a man, and 
a man's heart be given to it ? Will he assert that the 
monster beast of one head and ten horns, Daniel vii., 
whose teeth were iron, and its nails brass, is also to 
appear in Italy, and act out the tragedy of violence 
and slaughter toward other animals, which is imputed 
to it ? Will he hold, also, that the great red dragon 
of seven heads and ten horns, and a tail of such 
sweep as to strike stars from the firmament, will 
appear, standing on the moon, desiring to devour 
the man-child to which the woman, clothed with the 
sun, is about to give birth ? Will he hold that the 
beast from the sea of Rev. xiii., having seven heads 
and ten horns, and on its horns ten crowns, and 
upon its heads names of blasphemy, is also to present 
itself in the western Roman empire, and exert the 
agency and suffer the catastrophes that are foreshown 
of it ? And finally, will he aver that the crimson- 
colored beast from the abyss, with seven heads that 



24:0 THE LAWS OF SYMBOLS OF TIME. 

are fallen, and ten horns that are erect, and bearing 
a woman clothed in scarlet and purple, will present 
itself in western Europe, run a bloody career, and at 
length be cast alive into a lake burning with fire and 
brimstone ? Will he maintain that that is the genuine 
and indubitable teaching of Daniel and John, and 
that such a prophecy having relation chiefly to the 
animal world, is more worthy of the attributes of 
God, more indicative of his wisdom, more expressive 
of his power, righteousness and grace, than a revela- 
tion of the rise in the world of successions of human 
beings of a hideousness, ferocity, and bloodiness 
toward men, that resemble the fierce natures and 
acts of those beasts toward the weaker animals that 
fall in their way ? That is the conclusion he must 
adopt, unless he abandons the ground he here 
occupies ; as I shall hereafter make apparent by 
additional considerations. 



DK. TREGELLEs' ERROR IN REGARD TO DAN., ETC. 241 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

Dr. Tregelles' Error in regard to the Horns of Daniel vii. and viii. — They 
are not Symbols of the same Power ; their Persecutions are not the 
same ; nor are their Blasphemies alike — No Temple is to he built at 
Jerusalem by the Israelites who first return ; no Sacrifices are to be 
offered by them — There is no Proof that the Man of Sin is to set him- 
self in a Temple there — There is none that there is to be a Persecution 
of the True Worshipers in Palestine at that period. 

There are several other errors in the passages 
quoted from Dr. Tregelles and other writers in the 
preceding chapter. 

1. Dr. Tregelles is mistaken in the supposition that 
the little horn of Daniel vii. 8, 20, 21, and Daniel 
viii. 9-12, are the same. Nothing can be clearer 
than that they are very widely different. The .little 
horn of the wild beast of ten horns (Daniel vii. 20, 21) 
grew np on the head of that beast, which is the symbo] 
of the civil and military rulers of the western Roman 
empire ; and is itself the symbol of a civil and eccle- 
siastical power in that empire, in the midst of the 
civil aud military sovereignties denoted by the other 
ten horns. But the little horn of Daniel viii. 9-12 
sprang up, not on the head of that wild beast, but 
upon the head of the goat, which is the symbol of the 
supreme rulers of the Greek empire. The power 

11 



242 DR. TREGELLES' ERROR IN REGARD 

accordingly represented by that little horn which 
sprung up under one of the four horns of the goat, 
and pushed it from its place, though a Roman agent, 
was seated within the Grecian empire^ and was purely 
a civil and military power, in distinction from an 
ecclesiastical one, like the little horn of the ten-horned 
wild beast. The Roman power represented by the 
little horn of the goat, introduced itself into the 
empire of the Greeks by the conquest of Macedonia 
by Paulus ^Emilius in the year 168 before Christ, and 
had its main seat in the eastern empire, under Dio- 
cletian, Galerius, and at length Constantine and his 
successors, for several ages. The prediction respect- 
ing its acts had its accomplishment first in the con- 
quests that were soon made by the Romans of the 
whole territory that had belonged to the four Greek 
dynasties represented by the four horns of the goat ; 
and next in the persecution of the true worshipers 
of God, for a period by the Pagan emperors ; and 
then by those that were nominally Christian, and the 
preclusion from the faith of men of the sacrifice of 
Christ as the expiation of sin, substitution in its 
place of works, superstitious rites and idol worship ; 
and destruction or desecration of the edifices in which 
the true people of God paid their homage to him. 
Many of the buildings appropriated by the pure 
worshipers to the service of God, were confiscated 
in the fourth, fifth, and following centuries, or 
destroyed ; or such as were left undemolished, were 



TO THE HOKNS, DANIEL VII. AND VIII. 243 

desecrated by the introduction of images, and the 
observance of unlawful and impious rites. No greater 
persecutors ever appeared than Diocletian, Galerius, 
Licinius, Constantine, Constantius, Justinian, and 
others who had their seat, and most of them exclu- 
sively, in the eastern Roman empire, that had pre- 
viously belonged to the Greeks. The eleventh horn 
of the wild beast, and the sixth horn of the goat, 
differed essentially therefore from each other. The 
horn of the goat was a mere civil and military power, 
and had its seat in the eastern Roman empire ; and 
it was as such a power, that it magnified itself against 
the Prince of the host of heaven, and took away from 
the faith of men the expiation wrought by Christ 
which the daily sacrifice symbolized ; and destroyed 
or defiled the sanctuaries in which God received a 
true worship. It made no pretensions to the office 
of vicegerent of God. 

On the other hand, the eleventh horn of the beast, 
Daniel vii., was chiefly an ecclesiastical power, that 
had its seat exclusively in the western Roman 
empire, claiming to be the vicegerent of God, arro- 
gating the right to dictate the faith not only of the 
people, but of the rulers of the ten Gothic kingdoms, 
and wearing out the saints by the most persistent, 
cruel and bloody persecution. 

It is a still greater error to maintain that the 
prince whom Dr. Tregelles and other writers I have 
cited, imagine is to confirm a covenant with the 



2M DE. TEEGELLES' EREOE IN EEGAED 

Jews, is also the same power as is denoted by the 
horn of the goat and of the beast. The power sym- 
bolized by the sixth horn of the goat, came into being 
more than two thousand years ago, and long since 
finished its career. The power denoted by the 
eleventh horn of the beast came into being a little 
more than twelve centuries ago, and is still in 
existence. The prince whom these authors hold is to 
confirm a covenant with the Jews in the seventieth 
week of Daniel, which they regard as yet future, has 
not yet come into existence, and never will. He is 
not a reality, but a mere fiction ; and when the time 
comes that those who expect him, look for him most 
eagerly, and strain their eyes to catch a gleam from 
his diadem, he will mock at their delusion, and shrink 
into inanity. 

2. The persecutions by the eastern and western 
horns, are not the same. The principles on which 
they proceeded were, indeed, in a large degree 
alike, as both arrogated the right of dictating the 
religion of their subjects. But the power denoted by 
the eastern, claimed the right as belonging to their 
oflice as civil rulers ; the power symbolized by the 
western horn claimed to be invested by God himself 
with that prerogative. But their persecutions differed 
from each other in respect to their instigators and 
agents, their period, and the individuals against whom 
they were directed. The monarchs of the east were 
the authors of the persecutions in their empire. 



TO THE HORNS, DANIEL VII. AND VH1. 245 

Their war on the people of God began centuries 
before the western horn rose into power: and the 
victims of their vengeance were their own subjects. 
The persecutions in the west, were in the main insti- 
gated by the Popes and the Catholic clergy ; and the 
civil powers of the ten kingdoms, were the executors 
of their will. Their persecutions began twelve cen- 
turies ago and continue to the present time, and the 
victims of their vengeance have been the subjects of 
the Pope himself, or of the kings who were symbol- 
ized by the other horns of the beast. 

E~or can the persecutions by the prince who, 
according to these writers, is yet to come, be the same 
as those of the powers denoted by the horn of the 
goat and the horn of the beast. 

3. The blasphemies of the horns differ also from 
the blasphemies that are to be uttered by the Man of 
Sin, whom these writers hold is to be the prince who 
is to make a covenant with the Jews. The blasphe- 
mies of the power symbolized by the sixth horn of 
the goat lay in its arrogating dominion over the 
worshipers of God in their relations to him, and 
magnifying itself against the Son of God, by legis- 
lating over his people and his laws, setting aside his 
expiation, and instituting false Saviours in his place. 
The blasphemies of the power denoted by the 
eleventh horn of the beast, lay essentially in its arro- 
gating a similar authority over the population of the 
ten western kingdoms, setting Christ's expiation 



246 NO TEMPLE TO BE BUILT AT JERUSALEM. 

aside, and substituting the mass in its place ; claim- 
ing God's sanction of all its false doctrines and false 
worships, and speaking great words against the Most 
High. Their blasphemies thus differed in a measure 
from each other in kind ; they were the acts of dif- 
ferent individuals, and the times in which they were 
uttered were different. 

But their blasphemies are still more unlike those 
which are to be breathed from the impious lips of the 
Man of Sin. For he, instead of simply claiming that he 
is invested by God with authority over the faith and 
worship of his subjects, is to deify himself, and boast 
that he is not only equal, but superior to Jehovah, 
set himself in his temple and demand from his sub- 
jects a worship of himself as God. 

4. It is asserted by these writers, with great assur- 
ance, that a temple is to be built for their sacrificial 
rites, by the Jews, on their return to Jerusalem, and 
before the advent of Christ. Mr. Baxter intimates 
that perhaps they will fit up the mosque of Omar for 
the offering of sacrifices, p. 73. Mr. Newton main- 
tains that the temple will be a new erection. " The 
jews, when they return to Jerusalem, will sooner or 
later rebuild their temple and reinstitute their sacri- 
fices." Cited by Mr. Baxter, p. 223. Mr. Purdon 
entertains the same view : "The infidel king will suc- 
ceed in setting up his image by main force, in the 
newly-finished temple." Baxter, p. 229. There is 
not a syllable, however, in the prophecy respecting 



NO SACRIFICES TO BE OFFERED. 247 

the erection of a new temple for sacrificial rites, or 
any other services connected with the worship of 
Jehovah. Isor is there any intimation to that effect 
in any other part of the prophetic Scriptures, though 
there are several passages that imply that there is to 
be a temple at Jerusalem in the last days ; as Isaiah 
ii. 1 ; yet the only prediction of a new temple is that 
of Ezekiel, which is to be built in obedience to a 
specific command, and in conformity to a prescribed 
model. The persuasion that the erection of such an 
edifice is implied in Daniel ix. 27, is a sheer delusion. 
They infer that a temple is to be built, simply be- 
cause they have assumed that sacrifices are to be 
offered. They quote nothing to prove it. It is a 
mere fiction patched on to the text, in order to con- 
ceal one of the fatal gaps that yawn in their theory. 

5. Their bold and reiterated representation that 
sacrifices are to be offered, is equally without au- 
thority from the prophecy. They begin with the false 
assumption, that the seventieth week, instead of 
being that which immediately followed the sixty-ninth, 
was thrown forward more than eighteen centuries. 
But as sacrifices cannot be offered according to the 
Mosaic ritual, without a tabernacle or temple that is 
erected by the command of God, and consecrated to 
him ; and as no temple now exists, it is clear that 
they cannot present the morning and evening vic- 
tims, nor any other oblation, unless they first erect 
a temple. Hence these writers announce it as a cer- 



24:8 NO SACRIFICES TO BE OFFERED. 

tainty deduced by the most indubitable logic, that a 
temple is to be erected by the Jews immediately 
after their return. But the premise from which this 
conclusion is drawn, being false, the conclusion is 
false also. How astonishing that these authors go 
on reiterating statements, and assertions, page after 
page, that certain things are taught in the prophecy, 
that have their existence only in their imaginations ! 
" Woe to the foolish prophets that follow their own 
spirit, and have seen nothing." Their supposition is 
as devoid of probability as it is of authority from the 
Bible. They assume that the temple which they 
hold is to be erected by the Jews immediately on 
their return, is to be truly consecrated to God, as a 
place of sacrificial rites. But that implies that its 
erection and appropriation to his service will be 
held by the Jews generally to be obligatory on them, 
and acceptable to him. That, however, is incredible. 
A considerable part of those who first return, will 
have become believers in Christ, we are expressly 
taught — Zech. xiii. 9. — and will not, therefore, 
engage in offering sacrifices that are merely typical 
of him, and the presentation of which was discon- 
tinued by the Apostles and early Christians from the 
day of his resurrection. They would regard it as in- 
volving a renunciation of him as their Saviour, and 
the adoption, like the Galatians, of another gospel. 
There is also to be a large body among them who, if 
without a true faith in Christ, will still have reached 



NO SACRIFICES TO BE OFFERED. 249 

a strong conviction that he is their Messiah. They 
are to go back to their land under a general, though 
doubtless an inadequate conviction that they are 
under the special care of the God of their fathers, 
and that he is to reestablish them by extraordinary 
means in their ancient inheritance. It is absurd to 
suppose that that feeling which has held possession 
of them in all past ages, is to have no part in 
prompting their return. Why should they go back, 
if they have no faith in the promises made to their 
fathers ? What other conceivable motive can rise to 
such strength as to prompt them to a movement, in- 
volving so many deprivations, exposing them to so 
many dangers, and so uncertain in its issue as it 
must be if assured by no pledges of success from the 
Holy One of Israel ? But those who are swayed 
by this general faith in God's interposition for their 
guidance, will not be likely to disregard the convic- 
tions and persuasions of the true believers in Christ 
with whom they are intermingled as members of the 
same families and groups. That there will also be a 
large body who will have no true faith, but will be 
under the dominion of unbelief, pride, and worldly am- 
bition, is clearly indicated by the slaughter to which a 
multitude are to be consigned, and the deep repent- 
ance and the wondering faith in the blood of Jesus, 
with which the survivors are to be touched. Zech. xii. 
10-14 ; xiii. 8. The sins that are to draw on them the 
avenging judgments by which they are to be struck to 

11* 



250 NO SACRIFICES TO BE OFFEEED. 

the grave, are represented as those of idol homage, and 
false pretences to a prophetic spirit. Zech. xiii. 1-5. 
Instead of worshiping Jehovah by sacrifices, many 
of them are to go back from their exile among 
pagans, like their fathers in leaving Egypt, deeply 
infatuated with the false gods and false faiths under 
which they have been nurtured ; while others who 
openly profess to be the worshipers of the God of 
Israel, will act the part of the false prophets whom 
Christ foretold were to appear after his departure 
from the world. 

But that this fancy that they are to offer sacrifices 
and resume the whole Mosaic ritual, is wholly mis- 
taken, is seen from the consideration that they will 
have no descendant of Aaron who can fill the office 
of priest. No one was authorized by the Mosaic law 
to offer animal sacrifices or incense in the tabernacle 
or temple, except Aaron and his lineal descendants. 
An intrusion into the priest's office in any of its most 
important functions was a sacrilege, and was punished 
as such by the most signal inflictions. Thus Uzziah, 
the king, on entering the temple, and attempting to 
offer incense on the golden altar, was struck with 
leprosy, by which he was driven from his throne and 
banished from the society of his family and his peo- 
ple. That law has not been abrogated, nor will it be. 
The Jews, therefore, who return before Christ's ad- 
vent, will not attempt to reinstate the offering of 
sacrifices and oblations, if for no other reason, because 



THE MAN OF SIN, ETC. 251 

they will have no priest who will be qualified to pre- 
sent victims on the altar, sprinkle the blood, bear it 
on the day of the great atonement into the Holy of 
Holies, nor to burn incense morning and evening on 
the golden altar. To suppose them to attempt it is to 
suppose them to set the laws of the Mosaic ritual so 
flagrantly aside, as to make it solecistical to imagine 
that they will regard the injunction itself of sacrifices 
and oblations as of any authority. 

That there are to be worshipers of idols also among 
that people, even at the time of Christ's second com- 
ing, is foretold by Isaiah ii. 20, 21 : " In that day a 
man shall cast his idols of silver and his idols of gold, 
which each one made for himself to worship, to the 
moles and to the bats, to go into the clefts of the 
rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear 
of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, w T hen 
he arisetli to shake terribly the earth." The whole 
imagination of these writers is thus a dream that has 
sprung from a desire to give an air of probability to 
their false notions respecting the Emperor of France 
and Antichrist. 

6. There is no proof that the Man of Sin is to seat 
himself in a temple of God at Jerusalem, in order to 
be honored as divine. A temple erected without au- 
thority from God, and for ends that are not consistent 
with his will, would not be a temple of God. As, 
then, there is not to be a true temple of God at the 
time that Antichrist goes there, he plainly cannot seat 



252 THE M1N OF SIN, ETC. 

himself there in one. It is not probable that the 
Man of Sin will select Jerusalem as the scene of that 
act of impiety. His seating himself in the temple of 
God, and showing himself that he is God, is exhibited 
not only as his greatest act of wickedness, but as hav- 
ing for its aim the reception of divine honors from his 
subjects. In order to that he will naturally select as 
the scene some capital in his empire where he has his 
court, where his subjects throng in the greatest num- 
bers, and where those dwelling at a distance may 
have the readiest access to him. To go to Jerusalem 
would be to go where no worshipers except his im- 
mediate attendants and his army could present to 
him their homage. Dr. Tregelles holds that it is in 
the temple at Jerusalem that he is to seat himself: 
" The Holy place is that in which this abomination 
of desolation will be set ; this, of course, means the 
temple of God at Jerusalem," p. 105. But the abomi- 
nation of desolation is not the Man of Sin. This is 
clear, from the fact that the time ol its intrusion into 
the Holy Place, by which is meant, not the temple 
edifice, but the courts of the temple, was imme- 
diately before the commencement of the siege of 
Jerusalem by Titus, as is seen from Christ's injunc- 
tion to his disciples, that when they saw that abomi- 
nation standing in the Holy Place, they should flee 
to the mountains, implying that the siege of the city 
would not then have commenced. In order to see the 
abomination of desolation established in the courts of 



NO PEKSECUTION AT JEKUSALEM. 253 

the temple, it was necessary that they should be at 
the city and at points from which the temple courts 
were visible ; and that they might flee from the city 
it was necessary that it should be unbesieged. 

7. These expositors furnish no proof that there is to 
be a great persecution of the true worshipers by the 
Man of Sin in Palestine, when he goes there to make 
war with the Jews. That it is to be a time of unpar- 
alelled tribulation, we are distinctly forewarned ; but 
the trouble is to be of the same kind as that which 
signalized the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans ; 
the trouble of internal factions and of external war. 
There was no persecution of the Jews by Titus on 
account of their peculiar religion. The war was a 
mere ordinary war to crush the nation into subjection. 
And there is no hint that the war of the eighth king, 
the Antichrist, on the Israelites at Jerusalem, will be 
anything else than a fierce, merciless and bloody as- 
sault on the nation to break up its organization and 
drive it again into exile. That is the picture drawn 
of the trial by Zechariah : " And it shall come to 
pass that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts 
therein shall be cut off and die ; but the third shall 
be left therein. And I will bring the third part 
through the fire; and will refine them as silver is 
refined, and will try them as gold is tried. They 
shall call on my name and I will hear them ; I will 
say, it is my people ; and they shall say, the Lord is 
my God," chapter xiii. 8, 9. This seems to imply 



254: NO PERSECUTION BY THE MAN 

that none are to die but the unbelieving. The fac- 
tions and strifes of the wicked may be as violent as 
the feuds and contests were of the Zealots. They 
may be as great a source of terror and suffering as 
Antichrist will be. In like manner it is foreshown in 
Isaiah, that the slaughter and destruction at that 
crisis, vast as they are to be, are to be confined to 
the incorrigible: "For behold the Lord will come 
with fire and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to 
render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with 
flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the 
Lord plead with all flesh, and the slain of the Lord 
shall be many. They that sanctify themselves and 
purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in 
the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination 
and the mouse shall be consumed together, saith the 
Lord," chapter lxvi. 15-17. This destruction, more- 
over, is to be by the direct hand of God and his at- 
tendants ; not the work of Antichrist and his host. 

The aim of the eighth king who is to make war on 
the Lamb, in Palestine, is not to be to persecute the 
Jews and force them to worship him as God, but to 
intercept their re-establishment in their land, drive 
them again into exile, and thereby confute the faith 
they and the whole body of Gentile believers will at 
that crisis hold and profess, that Christ is to come in 
the clouds and assume the sceptre of Israel, and judge 
and destroy all his and their open and avowed ene- 
mies. The great question to be determined by the 



OF SIN AT JERUSALEM. 255 

invasion of Palestine and the neighboring countries, 
is not to be, whether the Man of Sin is to be wor- 
shiped or not ; but whether Christ is to come in his 
glor j, assume the dominion of the world, and destroy 
all his organized enemies ; and the power represent- 
ed by the beast in its last form, will attempt to de- 
termine that by force of arms, and will be hurled to 
the lake of lire by Christ's own hand, while his army 
will be consumed by the brightness of his coming, 
and the breath of his mouth. Rev. xvi. 14^16 ; xvii. 
11-14 ; xix. 19-21. 

I might point out other errors in these authors, but 
these are sufficient to show the utter untenableness of 
their system. 



256 NO IMAGE TO BE SET IN THE TEMPLE". 



CHAPTEE XIY. 

There is no proof that an Image is to be setup by Antichrist in a Temple 
at Jerusalem — That Notion is derived by these Writers from Apollina- 
rius — The Absurdity of the Views of the Image held by Dr. Tregelles, 
Mr. Baxter and others — The reason that Apollinarius assumed that an 
Idol or Statue was to be placed in the Temple, and that he with others 
maintained that Sacrifices are to be offered there ; that there the 
Abomination of Desolation is to be Exhibited ; and the other Peculiar- 
ities of their Constructions of Daniel — The Ground on which he and 
others Interpreted the 1260, and 1290 Days, as the measure of Anti- 
christ's Career. 

There is no indication in tlie prophecy that an 
image or idol is to be set up in the temple in which 
Antichrist is to seat himself. The notion of such an 
image is a fiction of the commentators from whom 
these modern writers derive their views. Some of 
them represent that the shape, which they hold is to 
be the abomination foreshown by Daniel, is to be that 
of the Man of Sin himself. Others intimate that it 
is to be the image of the beast. — Rev. xiii. 14, 15. 
Tregelles, p. 153. Baxter, pp. 200, 20T. 

Hippolytus makes no allusion in his work on 
Daniel, to the introduction of an image into the temple 
which he held Antichrist is to rear in Jerusalem, and 
make the scene of the worship which his minions 
are to pay him. That notion, however, was held by 



EUSEBIUS TN EEGARD TO THE SEVENTY WEEES. 25V 

Apollinarius of Laodicea, who in the fourth century 
obtained some celebrity as an opponent of Porphyry, 
and a commentator on the Scriptures. His works 
are chiefly lost, but the passage I am to give is pre- 
served in Jerome's Commentary on Daniel. The error 
of Eusebius in respect to the seventy weeks, lay accord- 
ing to Jerome, in his assuming that the term anoint- 
ed, or Messiah Prince denoted the chief priests and 
princes or rulers of the Jews who led the captive 
people back from Babylon to Jerusalem and their 
successors there to the birth of Christ ; and in con- 
sequence of that misjudgment, reckoning the sixty- 
nine weeks from the edict of Cyrus, which terminat- 
ing according to his mistaken calculation, at Christ's 
birth, led to the assumption that the seventieth week 
was disjoined from the sixty-ninth by a space of 
thirty years. Apollinarius ran into the still greater 
error of assigning the whole seventy weeks to the 
ages that immediately followed Christ's crucifixion, 
instead with the exception of the last half week, pre- 
ceding them. It was this untenable assumption that 
prompted Jerome to reject his theory. 

u But Apollinarius dismissing all inquiry in respect to past 
times, directed his search to the future, and adventurously 
wrought out a judgment in regard to events that are altogether 
uncertain: which, should those who are to live after us, find 
are not verified according to his calculation, they will be under 
the necessity of seeking another explanation, and will arraign 
him as a teacher of error. Ho said then : ' During four hun- 



258 VIEWS OF APOLLINARIUS IN RESPECT 

dred and ninety years, si a and all the excesses that spring from 
sin, are to be repressed; after which good is to come, and the 
world is to be reconciled to God at the advent of his Son. For 
from the going forth of the word when Christ was conceived 
of the Virgin Mary unto the forty-ninth year ; that is, the end 
of the seven hebdomads, there was a waiting for the repentance 
of Israel. But after the eighth year of Claudius Caesar, the 
Roman arms were arrayed against the Jews. For, according 
to the evangelist Luke, in the thirtieth year of his age in the 
flesh, the Lord began to preach the Gospel ; and according to 
John (through three passovers), he afterward spent two years; 
and after that six years of Tiberius are to be reckoned, and four 
of Claudius Caesar, sirnamed Caligula, and eight of Claudius : 
that is, together forty-nine years, which make seven hebdomads 
of years. But when four hundred and thirty-four years have 
revolved, Elias shall come, who, according to the words of our 
Lord, is to restore the heart of the fathers to the children ; and 
in the last hebdomad, during three years and a half, Jerusalem 
and the temple are to be built, and Antichrist is to come, 
and is to sit in the temple of God ; and after he has fought 
against the saints, is to be put to death by the Spirit of the 
Lord. And so it is to be that the half week will confirm the 
Covenant of God with the saints; and again the half will pro- 
claim the cessation of sacrifices under Antichrist, who will 
place the abomination of desolation, namely, the idol and statue 
of his own god, in the temple; and the Jewish people, who 
have spurned the truth of Christ, and accepted the lie of Anti- 
christ, will be overwhelmed with the utmost desolation and 
doom." 

Jerome adds moreover : 

" Apollinarius asserts that he adopts this conjecture of the 
times, because Africanus, a writer on chronology, testifies that 



TO AN IMAGE IN THE TEMPLE. 259 

the last hebdomad is to be at the end of the world : which can- 
not be ; inasmuch as it implies that ages that are continuous 
are to be divided. And besides it contradicts the prophecy of 
Daniel, according to which all times are coupled together in an 
uninterrupted line." * 

* Apollinarius Laodicenus omne praeteritorum temporum se liberans 
questione, vota extendit in futurum, et periculose de incertis profert senten- 
tiam. Quae si forte hi, qui post nos victuri sunt, statuto tempore coinpleta 
non viderint, aliam solutionem quaerere compellentur, et magistrum 
erroris arguere. Dicit ergo : In quadringentis nonaginta annis, peccata 
omnia, quae ex peccatis oriuntur vitia, comprimenda ; post quae ventura 
sint bona et reconciliandum Deo Mundum in adventu Christi filii ejus. 
Ab exitu enim verbi, quando Cbristus de Maria generatus est usque ad 
quadragesimum nonum annum, id est finem septem hebdomadarum, 
Israelis expectatam poenitentiam. Postea vero ab octavo Claudii 
Caesaris anno, contra Judaeos Romana arma correpta. Tricesimo enim 
juxta Evangelistam Lucam anno aetatis suae, cepit in carne Dominus 
evangelium praedicare, et juxta Joannem Evangelistam, per tria paschata 
duos postea implevit annos ; et exinde sex Tiberii supputantur anni, et 
quatuor C. Caesaris cognomento Caligula ; et octo Claudii, id est, simul 
anni quadraginta novem, qui faciunt hebdomadas septem. Cum autem 
quadringenti triginta quatuor anni, post hoc fuerint evoluti ; id est, sexa- 
ginta duae hebdomadae, tunc ab Helia, qui venturus est juxta sermonem 
Domini Salvatoris, ut restituat cor patrum ad filios, in ultima hebdomada 
aedificandum Hierusalem et templum per annos tres et semis ; venturum 
que Antichristum, et juxta Apostolum sessurum in templo Dei, et inter- 
ficiendum Spiritu Domini Salvatoris postquam contra sanctos dimicave- 
rit ; atque ita fieri ut media hebdomada confirmit testamentum Dei cum 
Sanctis, et rursum media cessationem victimarum esse pronuntiet'sub 
Antichristo, qui ponet abominationem desolationis, id est, idolum et 
statuam proprii Dei in templo, et erit extrema vastitas et condemnatio 
populi Judaeorum, qui spreta veritate Christi, receperunt Antichristi 
mendacium. Asserit autem idem Apollinarius hanc se temporum capere 
conjecturam, quia Africanus, Scriptor temporum, cujus super exposi- 
tionem posui, ultimam hebdomadam in fine mundi esse testatur ; nee 
posse fieri , ut junctae dividantur aetates, se et omnia sibi juxta prophe- 
tiam Danielis esse tempora copulanda." — Jerome on Daniel ix. 



260 VIEWS OF THE IMAGE FEOM APOLLINARIUS. 

It is apparent from this that Dr. Tregelles and 
those of his school drew from Apollinarius their 
notion that an image of the Man of Sin, of the beast, 
or of some other deified object, is to be set np in the 
temple at Jerusalem ; and that he himself or that 
image is to be the abomination of desolation. 

It is obvions also that it was from Apollinarius 
that they derived the idea that the putting a bar to 
sin, predicted of Christ, Daniel ix. 24, was not accom- 
plished by him in his death on the cross, but was to 
follow his crucifixion and resurrection. Apollinarius 
held that that act was especially to mark the four hun- 
dred and ninety years, that followed Christ's cruci- 
fixion : when he supposed he would appear again, 
and introduce a reign of righteousness and peace. 
Dr. Tregelles, and his school, hold that that intercep- 
tion of sin from its penal effects is still future, and is 
not to be consummated till Christ comes at the close 
of the present dispensation. 

Mr. Baxter's representation also, that the postpone- 
ment of the seventieth week till Christ's second com- 
ing, was because the Jews rejected him, is in like 
manner to be traced to Apollinarius, who held that 
the first seven weeks from Christ's conception, was a 
period in which the question was put to trial whether 
Israel would repent or not : and that at the close of 
that forty-nine years the destructive judgments on 
the nation* commenced in the war of the Romans, 
and the forbearance of God was thereafter restricted 



THEIR VIEWS OF THE IMAGE ABSURD. 261 

to the Gentiles. Mr. Baxter's views on that point 
are at least essentially those of Apollinarius. 

The views held by Dr. Tregelles, Mr. Baxter, and 
others, respecting the idol or statue that, according 
to their representation, is to be set np by Antichrist 
at Jerusalem ; and the notion that it is to be an 
image of the beast, Apoc. xiii. 14, 15, are absurd as 
well as false. The image of the beast was a mere 
symbol, and the representative of the Catholic hier- 
archies of the ten kingdoms, united in one organiza- 
tion with the Pope as their head. The gift of life to 
the image accordingly, that it should both speak, 
and cause that as many as would not worship it 
should be killed, was a mere symbol of the analogous 
acts which that Catholic hierarchy was to exert in 
its sphere as an organized body of ecclesiastics, 
modelled after the civil government of the Roman 
imperium under the emperors denoted by the 
seventh head, after it had been restored from its 
deadly wound ; Eev. xiii. 14, 15. The abomina- 
tion that causes desolation, is not an idol. The sup- 
position that the introduction into the temple 
grounds of an idol by the Man of Sin, as some of 
these writers hold, or as others deem by the Romans, 
could be the reason that God should abandon the 
temple and its courts to desolation, is forbidden by 
the consideration that it would not be the crime of 
the Jews, but of their enemies. The abomination of 
desolation was not the work of the Romans, but of 



262 THEIR VIEWS OF THE AB03HXATIOX MISTAKEN. 

the Jewish people themselves ; and consisted in the 
profanation of the temple and its courts by the bloody 
faction of Zealots who took possession of the whole 
site, a short time before the siege of the city began, 
and converted it into a fortress, and made it the 
ecen<e of violence, bloodshed, and every species of 
wickedness of which that impious band was capable. 
And that was the construction placed on it, Jose- 
plius represents; by the Jews themselves, who wit- 
nessed it. " Daniel wrote in regard to the supre- 
macy of the Romans, and eprffxcj^yaeraiy that they 
should lay waste our country." Jud. Ant. Booh x., c. 
xi. 7. He says again : " There was a prediction that 
the city should be taken, and the sanctuary burned by 
an enemy at a time when a faction should rise, and 
their own hands should pollute the sacred inclosure." 
De Bello Jud.) Boole iv. c. xi. 3. The notion of 
these writers that the abomination of desolation is 
yet future, and is to be the work of the Man of Sin, 
is thus against the express teachings of the prophecy, 
and against Christ's representation that its period 
was to be that of the invasion of Judea by the Ro- 
man armies, a short time before the city should be 
besieged. 

As there is no intimation in the Scriptures that an 
image is to be set up by Antichrist in the temple of 
God, in which he is to seat himself, and exhibit him- 
self as God ; how was it, it is natural to ask, that 
Apollinarius and others were led to the belief that 



THEIK BELIEF IN RESPECT TO THE IMAGE. 263 

an image is to be placed by Antichrist in the sup- 
posed temple at Jerusalem, and that that image, 
whether of himself or some other being, is to be the 
abomination of desolation ? It was undoubtedly from 
the fact that Antiochus Epiphanes who, in that age, 
was held to be a precursor or type of the last Anti- 
christ, on his conquering Jerusalem, and taking pos- 
session of the temple, introduced an image of one of 
his deities into it, and made it an object of worship. 
As he was regarded as a symbol of the Antichrist 
who is to appear in the last age of this dispensation, 
it was natural that they should assume that he is to 
act a part in its chief respects like that of Antiochus 
Epiphanes in all the impieties toward God, and atro- 
cities toward men, of which that merciless tyrant 
persecutor, and slaughterer of God's people, and vio- 
later of the temple, was guilty. That they held that 
Antiochus was the type and forerunner of Antichrist, 
is seen from the following passages from Jerome on 
Daniel. He says in commenting on chapter xi. v. 21 : 

"Thus far the order of history is followed, and no dispute 
exists between Porphyry and ourselves. But what follows to 
the end of the book, he interprets of Antiochus Epiphanes, 
brother of Seleucus, and son of Antiochus the Great, who after 
Seleucus, reigned eleven years in Syria, got possession of Judaea, 
and prohibited and profaned the rites enjoined by the laws of 
God, as is detailed, along with the wars of the Macchabees, in 
the remainder of the eleventh and in the twelfth chapters. 

" But our writers regard all these things as foreshown of 
Antichrist, who is to appear in the last times. . . . And as 



26:L THEIR IDEA THAT AXTIOCHUS EPIPHANES 

many of the things which we are yet to expound, are applicable 
to the career of Antiochus, they choose to regard him, as a type 
of Antichrist, and what took place but partially under him, as to 
have its full completion in. Antichrist. . . . For as the Saviour 
had in Solomon and other saints types of his coming ; so it is 
justly believed that Antichrist had Antiochus the worst of 
kings, who was to persecute the saints and desecrate the temple 
as a type of him." . . . 

"And he shall do what his fathers have not done (verses 
37, 38)." 

"Porphyry treats this at large; but I briefly. For our 
writers interpret it more justly as denoting that at the end of 
the world this is to be done by Antichrist, who is to have his 
descent from a small people, the Jews, and is to be so humble 
and despised, that regal honor will not be given to him ; and 
he will obtain the supremacy by artifice and fraud, and the 
arms of the Roman people will be assailed by him and broken. 
And he will do this because he feigns he is the prince of the 
league ; that is, of the law and covenant of God." * 

* Hucusque ordo Mstorise sequiter, et inter Porphyrium ac nostro3 
nulla contentio est. Csetera, quae sequntur usque ad finem voluminis, 
ille interpretatur super persona Antiochi, qui cognominatus est Epi- 
phanes : frater Seleuci, filius AntiocM M.agni qui post Seleucum undecim 
annis regnavit in Syria, obtinuitque Judseam, sub quo Legis Dei persecutio, 
et Hacchabaeoruni bella narrantur. Nostri autem hasc omnia de Anti- 

christo prophetari arbitrantur qui ultimo tempore futurus est 

Cum que multa, quae portea lecturi et exposituri sumus, super Antiochi 
persona conveniant : typum eum volunt Antichristi habere, et quse in 

illo ex parte praecesserint, in Anticnristo toto esse complenda 

Sicut igitur Salvator habet et Salomonem et caeteros sanctos in typum 
adventus sui ; sic et Anticnristus pessimum regem Antiochum qui Sanctos 
persecutus est, templumque violavit, recte typum sui habuisse creden- 

dus est Fecitque, quae non fecerunt patres ejus. Hsec Porphyrins 

sermone latissimo prosecutus est : qua? nos brevi compendio diximus. 
Nostri autem et melius interpretantur et rectius, quod in fine mundi haec 



WAS A TYPE OF ANTICHRIST. 265 

In accordance with this view of Antiochus Epi- 
phanes as a type of Antichrist, Hippoly tus, Apollin- 
arius, Jerome and others ascribe to Antichrist acts of 
the same kinds, both towards God and towards 
men, as the Jewish and other historians ascribe 
to Antiochus. Thus the author of Macchabees 
relates : 

" And Antiochus turned, after he had smitten Egypt in the 
year B. 0. 170 ; and passing into Palestine, advanced to Jerusa- 
lem, and entered into the sanctuary in haughty insolence, and 
seized the golden altar, aDd the candlestick, with all its furni- 
ture, and the table of presentation, the vessels of libation, the 
veil, and the golden ornaments on the front of the temple, and 
broke them in pieces. He also took silver and gold and precious 
vessels, and the hidden treasures which he found, and carrying 
all away, returned to Syria. He made a slaughter of the people 
also, and spoke in great pride. . . . And after two years he sent 
the curator who had charge of tributes into the cities of Judea. 
And he came to Jerusalem with a great crowd, and deceitfully 
addressing the people with pacific words, and gaining their con- 
fidence, he made a sudden onset on the city, and struck it with 
a severe blow, and put to death a multitude of the Jewish popu- 
lation ; and took the spoils of the city, and set it on fire, and 
demolished its houses and the wall around it. And he built up 
the city of David — Sion — with a high and strong wall, and 
massy towers, and made it a fortress ; and they placed there a 

sit facturus Antichristus, qui consurgere habet de modica gente, id est, 
de populo Judaeorum, et tarn humilis erit et despectus, ut ei non detur 
honor regius, et per insidias, et fraudulentiam obtineat principatum, et 
brachia pugnantis populi Ilomani expugnentur ab eo, et conterantur. 
Ei hoc faciet, quia simulabit se ducem esse foederis, hoc est, Legis et 
testamenti Dei. — Comment on Daniel xi. 21-38. 

12 



266 TYPICAL ACTS ASCEIBED TO ANTIOCHUS. 

race given to sin, unjust men, who rose to strength there, and 
made it a magazine of arms, food, and spoil ; and they made it a 
snare, and a means of plots against the sanctuary, and ponred 
out the blood of the innocent in the courts of the sanctuary, 
and polluted the holy place. And the sanctuary was made 
desolate like a solitude ; its festivals were turned to lamenta- 
tion, its Sabbaths to a reproach, and its honors to nothing. 
And King Antiochus wrote to every part of his kingdom that 
the whole people should be one, and each should relinquish its 
own peculiar law of religion, and all the races unite in one 
worship, according to his command. And many of the Israel- 
ites consented to that subservience to him, and offered sacrifices 
to idols, and desecrated the Sabbath. And the king sent edicts 
by messengers to Jerusalem, and to all the cities of Judsea, 
requiring that they should follow the laws of the Gentiles ; and 
that they should forbid the offering of holocausts and sacrifices, 
and expiations, in the temple of God ; and prohibit the observ- 
ance of the Sabbath, and feast days. And he commanded that 
holy things, and the holy people of Israel, should be profaned 
and polluted ; and he ordered the erection of altars and temples 
and idols, and the immolation of swine and animals that were 
not clean ; and that their sons should be left uncircumcised, 
and their souls denied with all impurities and abominations, so 
that they should forget the law, and change all God's statutes ; 
and that whoever should not obey the will of the king, should 
be put to death. And he appointed officers over the people, 
who should compel them to do these things. And they ordered 
that sacrifices should be offered in the cities of Judaea. And 
many of the people gathered to them, and forsook the law of the 
Lord, and did evil. And many of the people of Israel were 
driven into seclusion, and into the hiding place of fugitives. 
And on the fifteenth of the month, Chisleu, in the hundred and 
sixty-eighth year before Christ, King Antiochus erected the 



PAEALLEL OF ANTIOCHUS AND ANTICHEIST. 267 

abomination of the idols of desolation on the altar of God, and 
built altars in all the cities of Judsea, and before the gates of 
houses they burned incense, and offered sacrifices. And tear- 
ing the books of the Law of God in pieces, they burned them with 
fire. And whoever was found having the books of the Lord's 
covenant, and whoever observed the Law of the Lord, they put 
to death. . . . And many of the people of Israel resolved with 
themselves that they would not eat unclean things, and 
chosing to die, rather than to be polluted with impure food, 
they refused to break God's holy Law, and were slain." — 
1st Ifacchabees, chapter i. 

A similar account is given by Josephus of the 
deceits, robberies, slaughters and impieties of which 
Antiochus was guilty. — Antiq. Jud., lib. xii., cap. 
3, 4. 

The crimes which he perpetrated are thus, in the 
main, like those ascribed by Irenaeus, Hippolytus, 
Apollinarius and Jerome, to the future Antichrist. 

1. Thus Antiochus invaded Judaea and conquered 
Jerusalem. Antichrist, those writers held, is also to 
invade that country and conquer Jerusalem. 

2. He not only entered into a league or compact 
with many apostate Israelites, who desired to observe 
the rites of idolatry, but gave pledges of his favor 
and protection to the Jewish people at large, in order 
to draw them into a condition in which he could dis- 
arm them, and make them the victims of his avarice 
and vengeance. Antichrist is also, those writers 
maintained, to make a league with the Jews, by 



268 PARALLEL OF ANTIOCHUS AND ANTICHRIST 

which he is to draw them into his power, that he may 
make them the tools and victims of his ambition. 

3. Antiochns soon broke the pledges of peace and 
protection he had given to the Jewish people, and 
trampled them down with the most savage fury, and 
slaughtered great numbers of them. Antichrist, ac- 
cording to these authors, is to perpetrate a similar 
violation of his covenant with the Jews to re-estab- 
lish and protect them in their national land. After 
the lapse of three years and a half he is to break his 
league and turn and crush and slay them with the 
most unsparing cruelty. 

4. Antiochus not only robbed the temple of God 
of its golden furniture, and plundered the population 
of Jerusalem and the other cities, but he gathered 
vast spoils in Egypt, and undertook to seize the trea- 
sure of an idol temple in his own empire. That rob- 
bery is also to be the characteristic of Antichrist, 
who is to lay his hand on the treasures of gold and 
silver, and precious things of Egypt. 

5. Antiochus was eminently a destroyer. He not 
only laid waste the cities and fields of Judasa, but 
spread devastation through Egypt and other regions. 
These authors held that Antichrist is to run a similar 
career as a slaughterer of men and a devastator of the 
countries he overruns. 

6. Antiochus prevented the Jews from offering in 
the temple the sacrifices that were enjoined by the 
divine law, and made the presentation of those offer- 



PARALLEL OF ANTIOCHUS AND ANTICHEIST. 269 

ings an offence punishable with death. Antichrist is 
also, according to those commentators, to cause sacri- 
fice and libation to cease, and put an end to all the 
acts of worship that are enjoined by the Most High. 

7. Antiochus caused temples to be erected in every 
city of Judaea, and numberless altars for the worship 
of his false gods. Those ancient writers maintained 
that Antichrist is in like manner to build a temple in 
Jerusalem, in which sacrifices are to be offered for a 
time, and in which lie is at length to seat himself, and 
demand the homage of his subjects as God. 

8. Antiochus set up an idol in the temple in Jeru- 
salem, and required and compelled many to worship 
it as a deity. Antichrist is, in like manner, those 
writers affirmed, to set up an image or idol in the 
temple he is to build at Jerusalem, and compel his 
subjects to worship it as a God. 

9. Antiochus intruded into the temple what those 
writers regarded as the abomination of desolation; 
some holding that it was the image of Jupiter 
which he set above the altar of Jehovah ; and 
some the polluted and impious oblations with which 
it was served. Antichrist, in like manner, they main- 
tained, is to intrude into the temple he is to erect at 
Jerusalem the abomination of desolation ; some deem- 
ing that Antichrist himself is to be that abomination ; 
and some that it is to be the image he is to set up 
there, and the impious rites with which it ia to bo 
adored. 



270 PARALLEL OF ANTIOCHUS AND ANTICHRIST. 

10. Antiochus, in connection with these atrocities, 
instituted a fierce and bloody persecution of the Israel- 
ites, who continued steadfast in their allegiance to 
God, and consigned great numbers to outrage, slavery 
and death. Antichrist, in like manner, according to 
those authors, on breaking his league with the Jews, 
and prohibiting them from offering sacrifice and hom- 
age to God, is to turn and persecute those who refuse 
submission to his will with relentless fury, and is to 
put to death the witnesses of Jesus, and a crowd of 
other believers. 

11. Antiochus, by artifices, frauds and violence, 
drew a large crowd to offer the impious worship 
which he enjoined. Antichrist, these commentators 
represent, is to win the multitude to pay him the 
sacrilegious homage he is to demand of them. 

12. As Antiochus perished suddenly while uncheck- 
ed in his career of wickedness ; those writers deemed 
his death by violence a type of the instantaneous and 
remediless doom that is to overtake Antichrist in his 
war on God and his kingdom. 

The parallel thus embraces nearly all the acts and 
characteristics which they predicate of the future 
Antichrist ; and the reason that they imputed them 
to him undoubtedly was, that they assumed that An- 
tiochus was the type of Antichrist ; and thence that 
whatever specially signalized his career, was to have 
its counterpart in the ambition and avarice, the de- 
vastations and slaughters, the revolting impiety and 



ANTIOCHUS NOT A TYPE OF ANTICHRIST. 271 

merciless persecution of the holy and faithful that are 
in their belief to mark the Man of Sin as he advances 
through his career to the gates of perdition. For 
that postulate not only implied, but was equivalent 
to an affirmation, that such a parallel was to subsist 
between them ; and that was the sole ground on 
which their prognostications of Antichrist were 
founded. 

That assumption, however, was wholly gratuitous 
and mistaken. First, Because there is no authority 
for it in the prophecy. There is no intimation in 
Daniel that the person foreshown, v. 21-30, is a type 
of the king predicted v. 36-45, who is to exalt him- 
self above God, nor is there any parallel between the 
actions foreshown of them except that both were to 
be enemies of God and his people ; both ambitious 
conquerors ; and both to engage in war with the king 
of the south, and to overrun and lay waste Judsea, 
which was not altogether peculiar to them ; for not 
only were several other kings of Syria involved in 
war with the monarchs of Egypt, and invaded and 
plundered Palestine, but Shishak, one of the Egyp- 
tian kings, in the reign of Rehoboam, captured Jeru- 
salem and plundered the temple, the palace and the 
city of their treasures. The sums deposited in the 
temple as gifts to God were, indeed, repeatedly taken 
by the kings of Judah and devoted to the payment of 
tribute or the uses of war : as by Asa, who gave all that 
he could gather from sanctuary and palace to the king 



272 ANTIOCHUS NOT A TYPE OF ANTICHRIST. 

of Damascus, to purchase Ins alliance against the king 
of Israel ; and two hundred years later the temple 
hoards were seized by Ahaz, and presented to Tiglath. 
Pileser, king of Assyria, as the price of that mon- 
arch's alliance and war on his behalf on the kings of 
Syria and Ephraim. A like appropriation was made 
by Hezekiah of the wealth of the temple that had 
been gathered in the last years of Manasseh, and the 
first of his own reign, in the form of a tribute to 
Sennacherib. At length the temple was plundered 
and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. The second tem- 
ple also, which Antiochus robbed and polluted by 
his impieties, was in the year B. C. 65, captured and 
profaned by Pompey ; in the year B. C. 54, it was 
violated and plundered once more by Crassus ; and 
finally, in the year A. D. 70, it was captured and 
destroyed by Titus : and sixty-five years after, the 
Jews were banished from Jerusalem by Hadrian, and 
forbidden to observe the rites of their religion ; a 
Pagan colony was settled in their place, and a fane 
erected to Jupiter near the site where the temple of 
Jehovah had stood, and the image of that false. God 
set up in it as the object of worship. Why should 
Antiochus Epiphanes be considered any more than 
any one of those Pagans as a type of Antichrist be- 
cause of his having robbed and desecrated the tem- 
ple of the Most High, of which they also had been 
guilty ? 

Next. But the supposition that he was a type of 



ANTIOCHUS NOT A TYPE OF ANTICHKIST. 273 

Antichrist, is not only without any authority from 
the prophecy, but is precluded by the fact that no 
notice is given that he filled that office. For it is a 
peculiarity of types, that they are formally appointed 
by God ; and the place they fill is made known to 
those who are required to employ them as such. 
Thus Adam, as the head of the race, was by divine 
appointment the type of Christ. The Holy of Holies 
also was expressly constituted the type of the Holy 
of Holies in the heavenly temple in which God re- 
veals himself. The expiating sacrifices of the Mosaic 
ritual were, in like manner, ordained as types of the 
Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world : 
and so also were the high priests who as representa- 
tives of Christ, entered into the Holy of Holies 
annually on the great day of atonement, and pre- 
sented the blood of the victims that were consuming 
on the altar as a symbol of Christ's blood which was 
to be shed for the remission of sin. That no notice 
is given that Antiochus Epiphanes filled the office of 
a type of Antichrist, is an indubitable proof therefore, 
that he held no such place in his career of pride and 
lawlessness, of slaughter and of sacrilege. 

Thirdly. But the groundlessness and error of 
that supposition are demonstrated in a still more 
emphatic manner by the consideration that on the 
point of chief significance no parallel whatever is 
presented by Antiochus Epiphanes, to the Man of Sin, 
and Antichrist who is to appear at the close of the 

12* 



274: ANTIOCHUS NOT A TYPE OF ANTICHRIST. 

present dispensation. For the greatest and most dis- 
tinctive peculiarity of Antichrist is to be, that he is 
to exalt himself above all that is called God, and is 
an object of worship, and is to set himself as God 
in the temple of God, and as such demand the hom- 
age of his subjects. But Antiochus Epiphanes made 
no such impious pretence in respect to himself. He 
did not seat himself in the temple at Jerusalem, and 
proclaim himself God, and extort the homage of his 
subjects in that sphere. Instead, he asserted the 
deity of his idol god, and set up his image over the 
altar of Jehovah, as a rival of him ; and enforced the 
worship of the sacrilegious shape by insults, tortures, 
and death. As therefore there is no parallel in re- 
spect to this most distinctive characteristic between 
Antiochus and Antichrist, there is the most indubit- 
able certainty that Antiochus did not fill the office of 
a type of him. Antiochus aimed only at a suprem- 
acy over man. Antichrist is to aspire to a superiority 
over God, the Self-existent and Almighty. All the 
main grounds on which those ancient writers and 
their modern disciples proceed in their speculations 
in regard to Antichrist, are thus swept from beneath 
them, and their theory left without support. 

I now turn to the views on which those early 
writers proceeded in their interpretation of the great 
periods of Daniel, as denoting days simply, in place 
of years. 

As Apollinarius held with Africanus, Hippolytug, 



THEIR INTERPRETATION OF DATS. 275 

Eusebius, Jerome and others, that the days of the 
seventy weeks of Daniel were representative of a 
corresponding number of years ; why was it that 
neither he nor they applied that law of exposition to 
the other periods of Daniel, such as the time, times, 
and half a time, the twelve hundred and sixty days, 
and the twenty-three hundred evenings-mornings : 
and to the forty-two months and twelve hundred and 
sixty days of the Apocalypse? 

The reason doubtless was, that from the false 
notion they had inherited from the Jews, that the 
world was to reach its end at the close of the sixtli 
millennium, there was no space left between their 
age and Christ's second advent for periods of such 
length as twelve hundred and sixty years. They 
held that Christ's incarnation took place at or near 
the middle of the six thousandth year from the crea- 
tion. This is seen from the following passage from 
Hippolytus : 

"From the birth of Christ five hundred years are to be com- 
puted, in order that six thousand years may be completed ; and 
so the end will come. For as in the fifth (thousand) and a half 
the Saviour was present in the world, bearing the incorruptible 
ark, that is his own body, John said, And it was the sixth hour: 
that he might point out the half of the day. But the day of 
the Lord being a thousand years, the half of them arc five 
hundred. For it was not suitable that he should come earlier, 
for the burthen of the law still continued ; nor were the six 
thousand years completed; biit only the fifth and a half; that 
in the remaining half (millennium) the gospel might be preached 



276 THE REASON OF THEIR INTERPRETATION OF 

in all the world ; and the sixth day being completed, the pre- 
sent life may end." * 

Such being their belief in regard to the time when 
the present dispensation was to end, in the age of 
Africanus only two hundred and sixty, and in that of 
Hippolytus one hundred and eighty years were in 
their expectation to revolve, before the Son of God 
would come in the clouds ; and in the age of Euse- 
bius and Apollinarius only a hundred and thirty or 
forty. On their views, therefore, of the vicinity of 
the world's final hour, they were constrained to in- 
terpret the time, times, and half a time of Daniel, 
and the forty-two months and twelve hundred and 
sixty days of John, as simply denoting the periods 
which they directly express. Had they extricated 
themselves from the false ideas in which they had 
been nurtured, that all the predictions of the prophets 
which remained unfulfilled, were to have their ac- 

* VI. . . . 'Ano yersGECog olv Xqiarov del ipr^tXsiv nsvTct- 
y.6aia hi] to. ini),oi7za elg avfmXrjqcociv tcqv e^axioplioov szmv, 
y.at, ovrcog tazai to TtXog ' on ds 7Tt'fi7TTqp y.ui rjfiiasL y.aiqaj 
nctoriv 6 JEcozriQ iv rep y.o6 t uoj), cps'qcov ttjv a.at]7ZT0V xificoTov, to 
tdiov Gcopa, Ityei 6 'Icodvvrjg ' i\v ds aqa s'utt] ' ha rjfuav Trjg 
rjfxeqag imdei$ri' rjfxsqa ds Kvqtov %i)Ja sztj' tovtcov ovv to 
tjfiiav, yivezai 7zevzay.6o~ia ' ov yaq ivsds^sro avTov tcc^iov nct- 
QSivai, hi yaq ficiqog tofiov tjv, ovds sxzrjg 7ZE7i).7jQ00[isvT}g ' 
xuivovTCLi yaq to Xovzqov ' allot ns'fi7TT7]g y.al Tjfiiasiag, iva iv 
tcq imloinco tjuiosi %qovcp, slg ndrza top y.o6\iov to svayys- 
hov miQV'i&ri, nai Tzl^qoD&siar^g TTjg sxrrjg rjps'qag navvq tov 
vvv fiiov. 



DAYS AS STANDING ONLY FOE DAYS. 277 

complishment in two or three hundred years, they 
not improbably would have interpreted the other 
periods of Daniel in the same manner as they did 
the seventy weeks of that prophet. And had they 
done so, and verified their construction of the seventy 
weeks, by a true exhibition of the dates of the com- 
mencement and termination of the three divisions 
into which they were distributed, they would natu- 
rally have commanded the acquiescence of the 
churches of their day, and saved the generations that 
followed from the false excitements and fatal delu- 
sions m which so many have been involved by their 
inconsistencies and errors. 



278 DE. TREGELLES' VIEWS OF SYMBOLS OF TIME. 



CHAPTEE XT. 

Dr. Tregelles' Views of the Symbols of Time — His Error in regard to 
the Meaning of Shabua, Week. 

With a share of the objections, I have alleged to 
the views of these writers, they are probably not un- 
familiar. Dr. Tregelles, especially, endeavors in his 
remarks on Daniel, to evade those that relate to the 
interpretation of the symbols that are employed as 
the representatives of time. Let the mode be care- 
fully noticed in which he treats that subject. 

" Many," he says, " have adopted a principle of interpreta- 
tion with regard to designations of time when they are found in 
prophecy, to which they have given the name of the year-day 
system. This principle is that in such prophetic designations of 
time the literal meaning must not be held, but that in all ex- 
pressions of periods of time in future events, a day stands as 
the representative of a year, and all other spaces of time in 
similar proportion." P. 110. 

This statement is at a great distance from accuracy. 
The question between those who hold what Dr. Tre- 
gelles calls the year-day system, and those who reject 
it, is, not whether all designations of time that are 
found in jirophecy are used to denote greater periods 
than they literally express ; but whether those which 



DR. TREGELLES' VIEWS OF SVMBOLS OF TIME. 279 

occur in the symbolic prophecies, especially those of 
Daniel and John, and are given as measures of sym- 
bolic agencies, are used in that relation or not. 
There are several designations of time in the prophe- 
cies of Isaiah; but no one supposes that they are 
symbols of greater periods than themselves ; inas- 
much as they occur, not in symbolic, but in mere lan- 
guage predictions. 

"There are not a few who hold this as an opinion so estab- 
lished in their minds, that they regard it as an undoubted 
truth, without knowing definitely on what grounds it was 
adopted. They speak of a prophetic day, or a prophetic year, 
as if it were an axiom that these expressions denote the one a 
literal year, and the other a term of three hundred and sixty 
literal years. 

" On this principle they would interpret the designations of 
time in the Book of Daniel, and in the Kevelation : — they thus 
speak of the 1260 years and the 2300 years. Of course, if we 
find distinct Scripture warrant for this assumed canon, we must 
bow to it, and interpret accordingly. But if this canon is sup- 
posed to be a deduction from Scripture, let us examine whether 
the inference be legitimate, and let the reception or the rejec- 
tion depend on the grounds of proof. 

" It is not, I believe, stated by any that this canon is a sub- 
ject of direct teaching in Scripture ; at least none of the points 
advanced seem to be relied on as showing this ; some of the main- 
tainors of the system, expressly repudiate such a thought. 

w Some who have received the year-day principle without 
inquiry, will be surprised ab these admissions of the weakness 
of that a priora evidence by which it is upheld ; others may 
think that too much is surrendered. At all events, it must be 
owned that this course of interpretation, is not known as an 



280 HIPPOLYTUS, EUSEBIUS AND OTHERS HELD 

intuitive truth : the early church knew no such maxim : and 
therefore I hold that it should be shown to be either laid down 
in Scripture, or else it should be proved thereby, before any one 
can be expected to receive it, and before it is applied to the in- 
terpretation of prophetic statements." Remar~k% on Daniel^ 
pp. 110-112. 

Dr. Tregelles thus affirms here, not only that there 
is nothing in the Scriptures to authorize the interpre- 
tation of periods of time expressed in days as repre- 
senting a corresponding number of years ; but avers 
" that the early church knew no such maxim," or 
canon of construction. This is an extraordinary 
misrepresentation. For the seventy weeks of Daniel 
ix. 24-27, are expressed as distinctly and exclusively 
in days, as the period of 1260, or 1290, days is, or 
the forty-two months. And those seventy weeks 
w T ere most certainly generally interpreted as symbol- 
izing four hundred and ninety years, the number 
that corresponds witli the days comprised in seventy 
weeks. Thus Hippolytus in his work on Daniel, 
says : 

" That he might show the time when he was to come whom 
Daniel desired to see, he said : ' And after seven weeks, there 
are other sixty-two weeks, which contain the time of four hun- 
dred and thirty-four years. For after the return of the people 
from Babylon, under the leadership of Joshua, son of Josedech, 
and Ezra, the Scribe, and Zerubbabel, the son of Salathiel, who 
was of the tribe of David, there were four hundred and thirty- 
four years to the coming of Christ, that the Priest of priests 
might appear in the world, and that he who took away the sina 



THE WEEKS TO BE SYMBOLS OF YEARS. 281 

of the world might be openl y pointed out as John said of him 
' Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the 
world.' "* 

By the coming of Christ he meant his public mani- 
festation of himself at his entrance on his ministry, 
as is seen from his reference to John's pointing to 
him as the Lamb of God. 

Here is thus the clearest certainty that Hippolytus 
regarded the days of the seventy weeks as employed 
as representatives in the ratio of a day for a year, of 
four hundred and ninety years : for the seven, and 
the sixty-two weeks stood for 49 and 434, that is 483 
years, to which adding the one week, which he also 
recognizes, they make 490. ]STor was this interpre- 
tation of the seventy weeks peculiar to Hippolytus, 
but was common to him with Julius Africanns, Eu- 
sebius, and others, whom Jerome quotes. Thus Afri- 
canns, who says : 

* XV. Iva ovv inideify tov ygovov note ptXXei nagayert- 
aOai ov InsOvfisi 6 paxagtog /JavisX idsiv Xeyef v.ai pnta inra 
tfidofiddag, e^ijxovia dvai aXXai sfidofiddeg. at negity.ovot 
ygovov szkiv tsrgaxoaia tgidv.ovta ttaaaga ' peta yag to 
imargtipai tov Xaov BafivXcovog rjovpevov avtmv 'I^aov tov 
'loaedEx, y.u.1 "Eadga tov ygafjf/att'cog, xal ZogopafilX tov 
2!aXaOit])., cog ovtoog in cpvXlqg dafii8. tetgaxoaia Tgtdxovta 
tt'oaaga stij ysytvqrai smg nagovoiag Xgiazov, iva 6 isgevg 
t<av isQsmv iv noapco cpavt] xai 6 afgcov tag apagtiag tov 
aoapov qavegcog imbtUOrj^ <ag 'Iwdpvqg negl avzov Xtyet. 
"I8e 6 dfivbg tov {tsou 6 aigcov t\v apagtiav tov xoctytov.— 
Hippolytus on Daniel, Section XV, 



282 AFRICA XTS MSB JEEOilE HELD 

"But the angel himself said * Seventy hebdomads of years ; 
that is four hundred and ninety rears from the going forth of 
the decree, that there should be a response to the enemies of 

the Jews, and that Jerusalem should be rebuilt ; the first year 
being the twentieth of Artaxerxes, king of Persia."* 

Jerome quotes largely from Eusebius, and gives 
the two dates from which he computed the begin- 
ning and close of the seven, the sixty-two. and the 
one week. I transcribe only sentences which show 
that he contemplated the weeks of the three divi- 
sions as symbols of as many years as they contained 
days. Thus : 

" It does not seem to me to be without a reason that a divi- 
sion was made of the seventy hebdomads, so that seven are 
spoken of first, then sixty-two ; and the last, a single week is 
added, which is also itself divided into two parts. For it is writ- 
ten, know and understand that from the issuing of the decree, 
that an answer should be returned, and that Jerusalem should be 
built unto Messiah the Prince, should be seven hebdomads and 
sixty-two hebdomads. And after other things which he relates, 
Le adds at the close: And he shall confirm the covenant with 
many for one week. It is manifest that this announcement 
was not made without a reason nor without the inspiration of 
the angel, "t 

* Dicit autem ipse Angelas, geptuaginta axxoroi hebdoniadas ; id 
est, axmos qnadringentos nonaginta. ab exitu sermonis ut respondeatur 
et ut aedificetur Hierusalem. Yicesimum Artaxerxes regem Persarum, 
annum habere principium. 

f Xon mihi videtur frustra septuaginta hebdomadarum facta divisio, 
ut primum diceret septem, deinde sexaginta dua?, et ultima addereter 
hebdomada una. quae et ipsa in duas partes secta est. Scriptum est 



THE WEEKS TO BE SYMBOLS OF YEARS. 283 

And he proceeds to compute the periods from the 
issue of the decree of Cyrus, under the false notion 
that the term anointed — Messiah — denoted the chief 
priests and princes under whom the captives returned 
to Jerusalem, erected the temple, and finally built 
the wall and the city : 

" It is to these leaders," lie says, " that the prediction refers, 
in the words : ' From the going fortli of the decree that Jeru- 
salem should be built, unto Christ, the anointed Prince, are 
seven hebdomads, and sixty-two hebdomads, which make four 
hundred and eighty-three years, counting them from Cyrus."* 

The one hebdomad he referred to Christ's ministry 
and the three and a half years that followed his cru- 
cifixion. And the words, " He shall confirm the 
covenant with many one week, and in the middle 
of the week victims and sacrifice shall cease," lie 
interpreted as foreshowing — 

" That Herod reigning over the Jews and Augustus over the 
Romans, Christ should be born, who, preaching the gospel three 

enim ; scies et intelligea ab exitu sermonis, ut respondeatur, et aedificetur 
Hierusalem usque ad Christum ducem hebdomadas septem, et hebdoma- 
das sexaginta duas. Et post alia quae narravit in medio, ponit in fine : 
Et confirmabit testamentum plurimis hebdomada una, Haec non frustra 
et absque inspiration* Dei Angelum respondisse manifestum est. — Jerome 
on Daniel ix. 24. 

* Hosque significat et vaticinium prophetale, dicens : Ab exitu ser- 
monis, ut respondeatur, et aedificetur Hierusalem usque ad Christum du- 
cem, hebdomadae septem, et hebdomadae sexaginta duae : i. e. ut septem 
hebdomadae, et postea sexaginta duae, quae faciunt annos quadringentos 
octoginta tres a Cyro numerentur. 



284 DR. TREGELLES' ERRORS TS REGARD 

years and a half, according to the Evangelist John, and confirm- 
ing the worship of the true God through three years and a half, 
there should be to the Apostles and believers a discontinuance 
of victims and oblations in the half week that followed the 
Lord's crucifixion. For what was afterwards transacted in the 
temple in the judgment of all, was not a sacrifice to God but a 
worship of the devil." * 

I resume the quotation from Dr. Tregelles in which 
he endeavors to discredit the interpretation of the 
symbolic periods of Daniel and John, as without any 
sanction from those prophecies, and as the work of 
expositors who have little knowledge of the princi- 
ples on which they proceed, and gratuitously assume 
what they affect to prove. 

4 ' It is true that some expositors show that this principle is 
needful in their explanations of the prophecies themselves. This 
really is only a petitio principii ; a certain exposition cannot 
stand, unless this canon is assumed : therefore it is concluded 
the canon must be true. . 

" If then the prophecies containing designations of time, do 
not state any thing on the face of them which supports such a 
mode of interpretation, we must look elsewhere for the a priora 

Quodque infert ; Confirmabit enim pactum mulfcis hebdomada una et 
in dimidio hebdomadis deficiet hostia et sacrificium ; sic interpretatur ; 
quod Herode regnante apud Judseam et Augusto apud Romanos, Christu3 
natus sit, qui tribus annis et sex mensibus juxta evangebstam Joannem 
Evangelium praedicavit et confirmavit veri Dei cultum multis, haud 
dubium Apostolis et credentibus, quando post passionem Domini in de- 
midia rursum hebdomada, defecit bostia et saorificium. Quicquid enim 
in templo postea factum est, non fuit sacrificium Dei, sed cultus Diaboli, 
cunctis in commune clamantibus. — Jerome on Daniel ix. 24-27. 



TO SYMBOLS OF TIME. 285 

grounds of this opinion. I have then to consider certain pas- 
sages which are commonly referred to in support of this hypo 
thesis." — Remarks, pp. 110-114. 

I shall not attempt to shield the parties to whom 
he refers from the objections he offers to the princi 
pies on which they proceed. The chief writers *i 
the last fifty years, Faber, Frere, Cunningham, Bick 
ersteth, Birks, Elliott and others, undoubtedly had no 
exact understanding of the subject, and greatly em- 
barrassed it by unauthorized assumptions, and unre- 
liable logic. But great as their errors are, it will be 
seen from the objections I am to offer to the theory 
held by Dr. Tregelles, that he is at even a greater 
distance from a just comprehension of it than they 
were, and that the principles on which he proceeds 
are as contradictious to the truth as the most mistaken 
of the postulates and reasonings are by which those 
authors led great numbers into a wrong judgment in 
respect to the events that are at hand. He first re- 
fers to Num. xiv. 34. 

1. Numbers xiv. 34: "After the number of the 
days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, 
each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, 
even forty years." 

" This passage speaks of a denounced fact; but in it there is 
nothing that implies a principle of interpretation. The spies 
had searched the land of promise forty days ; and God sentences 
the murmuring and rebellious Israelites to wander in the wil- 



286 DATS STAND FOE YEAES IN NTJMBEES. 

derness the same number of years. In the prophetic part of 
the verse years are literal years, and not the symbol of anything 
else. Apply the year-day system to this passage, and then forty 
years will expand into a vast period of fourteen thousand and 
four hundred years." — BemarJos, p. 114. 

Tliis is a very awkward misapprehension. !No one 
supposes that years, in the prophetic part of the ex- 
pression — Num. xiv. 34 — are not literal years. It is 
because they are literal years that the forty days have 
that ratio to them which literal days bear to literal 
years. To convert them from literal years into other 
periods would be to desert the proportion that sub- 
sists between days and years. !N"or does any one 
suppose that after the " year-day system has been ap- 
plied to the forty days" interpreting them as denot- 
ing years, it is then to be applied also to those years, 
as though they were representatives of forty still dif- 
ferent periods as nltaeh greater than years, as years 
are greater than days. For that is the principle on 
which the ratio of days to years would be applied to 
years, if they were taken as denoting periods as much 
greater than themselves, as years are greater than 
days. The issue of such a process, instead of 14,400 
years, would be 5,184,000 years, or 14,400 periods of 
360 years each. But no one holds, that in this or 
other passages in which days are used as symbolic of 
years, the years they represent are also to be taken as 
standing for another set of periods, that are propor- 
tionally greater than themselves. The imputation of 



DAYS STAND FOR YEAES IN EZEKIEL. 287 

such a feature to the year-day principle is a total 
misrepresentation. 

" All that can be deduced from this passage as to the con- 
nection of the terms day and year, is, that as the search of the 
land had occupied forty literal days, so the wandering in the 
wilderness should continue forty literal years. Literal years 
answer to literal days." (p. 114.) 

And that is precisely what I affirm of the passage, 
that the days of the search of the land are used as 
representatives of the years of the wandering in the 
wilderness in the ratio which periods of the earth's 
revolution on its axis bear to the periods of its move- 
ment round the sun. It is an example, therefore, of 
the use of days as the representatives of years, in pre- 
cisely the manner in which the 1260 days are em- 
ployed as symbols of a corresponding number of years. 

He next refers to the command to Ezekiel iv. 
4-6, to lie first op his right side and next on his left, 
with the explanation : — " I have laid upon thee the 
years of the iniquity of the house of Israel, accord- 
ing to the number of days, three hundred and ninety 
days, and the iniquity of the house of Judah forty 
days. I have appointed thee each day for a year." 
Of this he says : 

" Now this is not a symbolic prophecy at all, but simply a 
symbolic action which was commanded by God; and unless 
there had been the express statement, we never could have 
known that what Ezekiel did for so many days really repre- 
sented the actions of so many years." 



288 DAYS STAND FOR YEARS IN EZEKIEL. 

But as God has informed us that Ezekiel's actions 
through so many days represented analogous acts or 
conditions of the Israelites of a corresponding num- 
ber of years, is it not the part of submission and faith 
to receive it as a fact, and a fact of so much signifi- 
cance to the people of Israel and Judah, as to make 
it just and wise that he should apprise them of it? 
Dr. Tregelles falls into a singular error in alleging 
that this is not a symbolic prophecy, but simply a 
symbolic action / as though symbolic actions were 
not prophetic. No misapprehension could be at a 
greater distance from the fact. The acts of symbols 
are as truly prophetic as the symbols themselves. 
Thus, as the beast of ten horns from the sea — Rev. 
xiii. 1-7 — is the representative of that group of 
kings, and subordinate officials of the western Roinan 
empire that exercised the legislative and executive 
functions of the ten kingdoms for a long period ; so 
the acts of the beast in opening his mouth in blas- 
phemy against God, and in making war with the 
saints are representatives of the analogous acts of 
those rulers in blaspheming the Most High, and per 
secuting his people. It is the very office, accordingly, 
of the 1260 days, the forty-two months, and the time, 
times, and a half, to indicate the periods through 
which the acts of the great agents extend, of whose 
career they give the measure. The 1260 days are 
not the measure of the life of the witnesses (Rev. xi. 
3), but of their testimony only : and the forty-two 



DAYS STAND FOR YEARS IN EZEKIEL. 289 

months of the beast from the sea (Rev. xiii.), are not 
the measure of the official life of those whom it re- 
presents, but only of their career as conquerors, blas- 
phemers and persecutors of the saints of the Most 
High. How is it that this great fact escaped Dr. 
Tregelles' notice ? He proceeds : 

" It is true that this is an instance in which a day symboli- 
cally represents a year, but the way in which this is done is 
wholly different from any such ground being taken as though in 
prophetic language the one were used for the other." 

The confusion of thought and expression that reign 
in the last part of this passage is truly lamentable. 
The question at issue is simply whether, in the verses 
from Ezekiel, " a day symbolically represents a year? 
That is all* that I, and all as far as I know, that others 
affirm of it. It is all that I allege the passage to 
prove, and that Dr. Tregelles admits. How could he, 
in the presence of the words from the lips of God 
himself deny it? The question, consequently, is not 
at all whether "the way in which this is done is 
wholly different from any ground being taken as 
though in prophetic language the one were used for 
the other." No one ever advanced such a pretext. 
The note-taker from whose memoranda this passage 
was printed, manifestly did not understand the sub- 
ject sufficiently to give an accurate statement of the 
point in debate. No one pretends that ground is 

13 



290 DAYS STAND FOE YEARS IN EZEKIEL. 

taken in the use of days as symbolic representatives 
of years, that in 'prophetic language, the one is used 
for the other. The question does not relate to "pro- 
phetic language" but to symbols, which, instead of 
words, are things, agents, objects, acts, times, — reali- 
ties ; not the mere names of those realities. But it 
is a total mistake to represent that days are not here 
used as symbolic representatives of years in the same 
way as they are in the symbolic prophecies. The 
way in which they are here employed is identically 
the same ; the period of the earth's revolution on its 
axis being employed to represent the analogous pe- 
riod of its movement round the sun. He adds : 

" If, in this passage, day meant year, or if it were to be inter- 
preted by year, what shonld we find ? That Ezekiel was com- 
manded to lie on his left side three hundred and ninety years, 
and on his right side forty years." (p. 115.) 

This is a sad misrepresentation. He has already 
admitted " that this is an instance in which a day sym- 
bolically represents a year." But that is all that is 
claimed by those who hold that days when used as a 
symbol, represent years. For that is the way, and 
the only way in which they regard a day as stand- 
ing for a year. How is it then, that Dr. Tregelles, 
after admitting all that those with whom he is con- 
tending affirm, turns round and represents that that is 
not the relation in which they hold that a day stands 



DATS STAND FOR TEAKS IN EZEKIEL. 291 

for a year, but that what thej maintain is, that a 
day means a year, irrespective of the fact that it is 
used symbolically, to denote that period, and that it is 
appropriated to that use by the lips of the Most High 
himself. What confusion of mind! What inac- 
quaintance with the simplest and most essential of 
the principles on which symbols are used ! 

In his attempts, to depreciate and caricature this 
use of days as symbols of years by the bold ascrip- 
tion to it of a meaning that contradicts the sense God 
himself expressly assigns to it, he exhibits a sad in- 
sensibility to the truth and sanctity of the divine 
word. How full and emphatic the significance was 
which God attached to it, in these instances, is seen 
from the fact that the period denoted in each, was 
verified by his providence. Thus in consequence of 
the wish of the Israelites to return to Egypt because 
of the false reports of some of the spies, he prolonged 
their wanderings in the wilderness through thirty- 
eight more years, during which the whole of the con- 
gregation who had come out of Egypt, with the ex- 
ception of Joshua and Caleb, were disinherited of 
Canaan, and consigned to dishonored graves. What 
an awe-inspiring verification of the truth of the 
words that had been spoken by the Holy One of 
Israel ! " After the number of the days in which ye 
searched the land — forty days — each day for a 
year, shall ye bear your iniquities, forty years." 



292 DATS STAND FOE YEAES IN EZEKIEL. 

This sovereign stroke of avenging justice which 
changed the history so disastrously of two millions 
of human beings, and was inflicted for the express 
purpose of showing the guilt and the danger of 
trifling with the truth of God : Dr. Tregelles contem- 
plates with a sneer, and ridicules it, by the pretence 
that " the year-day system " if legitimate, is to be 
applied to the " forty years," as well as to the forty 
days ; by which the " forty years " will be made to 
" expand into fourteen thousand and four hundred 
years." — Remarks on Daniel^ p. 114. 

The symbolization of years by days by Ezekiel's 
bearing the iniquities of Israel for three hundred and 
ninety days, and the iniquity of Judah for forty 
days, had an equally exact fulfillment ; though their 
representative direction was retrospective instead of 
future ; a consideration that puts a fresh and impres- 
sive seal on the truth and validity of the principle on 
which the symbol is used : for God places a double 
sanction on it by employing it in measuring the past 
as well as the future. The three hundred and ninety 
days taken as symbols of years, give the length of 
the period during which he bore with the Israelites 
from their revolt under Jeroboam, to the date of the 
seizure in the eighteenth of Nebuchadnezzar of a 
small group of captives, among whom were, doubt- 
less, some Israelites whose ancestors having fled into 
Judsea before the fall of the kingdom of Samaria, or 



THE VERIFICATION OF THAT USAGE. 293 

subsequently, left their descendants there to meet a 
doom like that which overtook their fathers one hun- 
dred and thirty-five years before. 

Thus : From the year of Jeroboam's revolt B. 0. 976 

Deduct the period denoted by the three hundred and 
ninety days 390 

586 
The year when the three hundred and ninety 
years expired was the five hundred and eighty-sixth 
before Christ, and the eighteenth of Nebuchad- 
nezzar. Jeremiah lii. 29. 

There was a like verification of the symbol of forty 
days, as the representative of the forty years during 
which God was to bear with the iniquity of Judah. 

Thus : From the reign of Josiah, of thirty-one years 31 

Deduct eighteen ; it having been in his eighteenth year 
that the people made a fresh covenant with God 18 

13 

Add to that the reigns of Jehoiachin and Zedekiah . . . 22 

Add five years from Nebuchadnezzar's eighteenth to his 
twenty-third year, when Nebuzaradan, the captain of his 
guard, gleaned the last body of captives that were trans- 
ported to Babylon, Jeremiah, lii. 30 and they make forty 
years 5 

40 
Mr. Cuninghame reckons those periods as but one, 
namely, 430 years, and as extending from the dedica- 
tion of the temple, in the year B. C. 1020, to the be- 
ginning of the siege of the city, B. C. 590, or else 



294 DR. TREGELLEs' DENIAL THAT 

from the first passover, after the erection of the tem- 
ple, B. C. 1018, to its destruction in the year B. C. 
588. But he overlooks the fact that the three hun- 
dred and ninety years were years of Israel's separate 
existence ; and the forty of Judah, years exclusively 
of that people. The first is to be dated therefore at the 
epoch of the revolt of the ten tribes : and the other 
at the commencement of God's prolonged forbear- 
ance with Judah, because of the reformation of that 
people forty years before the last body of them were 
carried captive to Babylon. 

" III. Another passage which has been used as a basis for 
this system, is the latter part of the ninth of Daniel : some, 
however, of the strenuous advocates of the year-day principle, 
fairly own that it has no bearing upon the question. Its sup- 
posed connection arises from the word ' Shabua,' rendered 
1 week,' having been taken as though it must be simply in its 
literal meaning seven days. This might be called wholly a 
question of lexicography ; the word itself is strictly, something 
divided into, or consisting of seven parts ; a heptad, a hebdo- 
mad. Gesenius simply defines its meaning to be a ' septenary 
number;' he then speaks of its use as applied sometimes to 
days, sometimes to years: the word itself, however, defines 
nothing as to the denomination to which it belongs, whether 
the one or the other. • - 

" In translating, we may use the word ' week ' not at all as 
conceding the point of meaning of the Hebrew word, but simply 
for convenience sake, and requiring less explanation and circum- 
locution, than any other in common use. I believe that I need 
say no more to prove that this ninth of Daniel, in no way up- 
holds the year-day scheme." — Pp. 115-117. 



WEEKS AKE SYMEOLS OF YEABS. 295 

But Lis errors here are as extraordinary and self- 
confuting, as those into which he fell in respect to 
the passages in Numbers and Ezekiel. 

It is a peculiarity of the prediction of the seventy 
weeks, Daniel ix. 1-27, not often noticed, so far as I 
have observed, by those who have given interpreta- 
tions of it — that it is not a symbolic, but a simple lan- 
guage prophecy, with the single exception of the time 
which is given as the measure of the years that were 
to intervene between the edict of the king of Persia, 
authorizing Nehemiah to rebuild the wall and dwell- 
ings of Jerusalem, and the close of the three and a 
half years that were immediately to follow the cruci- 
fixion of the Messiah. And this feature of the pro- 
phecy, it is especially important should be under- 
stood. For it distinguishes it from all others in the 
Old and New Testament, and may at the first glance 
be thought an obstruction to a satisfactory proof that 
the days of which the weeks consist are employed as 
representatives of a corresponding number of years. 

If, however, notwithstanding the fact that the seven- 

i 

ty weeks are not associated with any other symbols, 

but all the agents, acts, and events that are foreshown 

as to take place in the period which they denote, are 

expressed in simple language, and their prophetical 

meaning is their natural grammatical sense ; and yet 

the weeks are employed as symbols of years in the 

ratio of a day for a year : then much more may we 

feel it to be certain, that when times are used in 



296 THE SEVENTY WEEKS SYMBOLS OF YEABS. 

prophecies that are confessedly symbolical, like those 
of Daniel vii. viii. xi., and of John, they are to be 
interpreted, as representatives of periods that stand 
to the symbol in the ratio of years to days. 

While, then, I hold that the seventy weeks are 
symbolical : I admit and state it as a fact that the 
great agents, acts, and events foreshown in it are 
not ; but have their prophetic meaning exclusively in 
the grammatical sense of the language in which they 
are expressed. Thus in v. 24, the cutting off of the 
seventy weeks upon the people and the city, the 
putting a bar to transgression, sealing sin, making 
expiation for iniquity, bringing in everlasting right- 
eousness, sealing vision and prophecy, and anointing 
a Holy of Holies ; are acts, the first of God, and the 
others of the Messiah in his ministry and death ; and 
have their whole meaning in the usual sense of the 
words in which they are embodied. In like manner, 
in v. 25, the going forth of the commandment; the 
restoring and building Jerusalem; the Messiah the 
Prince ; the street and the wall, their building again, 
and the troublous times ; are used in their natural 
sense, and signify exactly that of which the words 
themselves are the proper names. So also in v. 26, 
the Messiah, his being cut off; the people that shall 
come, and the prince ; the destroying of the city and 
the sanctuary, the ending of them with a flood, and 
the continuance of the war, till the predicted desola- 
tions are accomplished, are all expressed in the sim- 



THE SEVENTY WEEKS SYMBOLS OF YEAKS. 297 

plest language, and have in its ordinary meaning all 
their significance. The metaphors in the use of cut 
off, and flood, to denote the suddenness and resistless- 
ness of the power by which the city was to be de- 
stroyed, are as clear in their settled meaning as it 
would have been had it been expressed without a 
figure. To cut off a person, was in the language of 
the Hebrews, to strike him violently and suddenly 
from life. To destroy a city with a flood, was to re- 
duce it quickly and resistlessly to desolation, as an 
overwhelming deluge bears away the dwellings, 
fences, and crops of the fields, which it sweeps, up- 
roots the trees, tears up the soil, and spreads the 
scene with desolation. 

And so finally in the 27th verse, the person who 
was to confirm the covenant, the covenant itself, its 
confirmation, and the many with whom he was to 
confirm it ; the sacrifice, and oblation, and his caus- 
ing them to cease ; the abomination of desolation, its 
coming over the battlement, and his pouring destruc- 
tion upon the desolate, until the full accomplishment 
of all that has been decreed, are all embodied in the 
words that are their proper names as persons, acts, 
and events. 

Most obviously then, so far as Christ and his 
acts and sufferings are concerned, and so far as 
the act of the Persian king in issuing his decree, 
and of the Jews in cutting off the Messiah, of the 
Roman prince and his army, and their acts, and the 



298 THE SEVENTY WEEKS SYMBOLS OF YEAES. 

effects to which they gave birth, are concerned, the 
prophecy is certainly not symbolical; but a mere 
language prophecy. 

But it will be asked if the seventy weeks are used 
as symbols on the ground of analogy, why were not 
the other parts of the prophecy conveyed to us 
through the same vehicle? The answer is, First, 
Because the great actor himself, his peculiar acts, 
and the acts also of men, and other events that are 
foreshown, could not be adequately exhibited through 
symbols. There are no symbols by which the Mes- 
siah in his twofold nature could be represented. 
There are none that could clearly indicate his pe- 
culiar office. There are none that could represent 
his obedience. There are none, that in the relation 
of analogy, could symbolize Jerusulem and the 
temple, so that they could be identified. There are 
none that could show the coining of a foreign prince 
and army to the city, and set forth its capture and 
destruction with the distinctness and certainty of 
meaning that are requisite in a prediction of such 
events ; and next, because if the Messiah and his 
acts and the other acts and events were symbols, it 
would be impossible to find any counterpart to them. 
What could the Messiah himself symbolize ? Being 
God, and God-man, it is impossible that he should be 
the representative of another being, who must of 
necessity be a mere creature ; for there would be no 
analogy between him and a mere human and de- 



THE SEVENTY WEEKS SYMBOLS OF YEAES. 299 

pendent agent. What could his being cut off denote, 
as a symbol of some catastrophe that was to befall a 
mere human or angelic person? What could the 
coming of a prince with an army signify, that differ- 
ed from itself? What could the destruction of the 
city and sanctuary foreshow, that bore a mere re- 
semblance to itself ? There are no parallel persons ; 
there are no parallel places, acts, and events, that 
they could symbolize. The prophecy accordingly of 
agents, acts, places, and events, is from necessity con- 
veyed, not through symbols but through language 
solely. The Messiah is designated by his official 
name ; his work in obeying and dying on behalf of 
men is described in the terms that are most suitable 
to express its true nature : and the coming of a 
foreign prince and his army, and destroying the city 
and temple are in like manner foreshown through 
words merely ; and it is necessary that this charac- 
teristic should be seen, and the reason that 'words 
were employed instead of symbols, understood, in 
order to a true judgment of its meaning. When 
justly apprehended, it will be found that the use ex- 
clusively of words to indicate the agents, the acts, 
and the events, is no barrier to the employment of 
the time which is given as the measure of those acts 
and events, as a representative of a far greater period 
to which that time bears the analogy that subsists 
between days and years. 

1. The first ground on which Dr. Tregelles endeav- 



300 THE MEANING OF SHABUA. 

ors to prove that the word shabua, translated " week," 
is not used to denote weeks, but years, is, that it does 
not etymologically mean a week, but simply " some- 
thing divided into, or consisting of seven parts- — a 
heptad ; a hebdomad." That is true ; but instead of 
sustaining, it confutes his interpretation of it as de- 
noting a year, as effectually, as according to him, it 
confutes the view which he opposes — that it is used to 
signify a week. Inasmuch as shabua, or the word from 
which it is formed, has, as he affirms, etymologically 
no special reference to time, and only means some- 
thing that consists of seven equal parts, it indubitably 
has nothing in its derivation or form that can any 
more make it indicate a year than it can make it 
stand for a week. Taken irrespective of usage, it can 
only mean a thing that is divided into seven equal 
parts. He, therefore, overthrows himself as effectu- 
ally as he imagines he does those whose views he re- 
gards himself as setting aside by a self-evident proof. 
The question, then, whether the word shabua 
here denotes a week, and not a year, is to be deter- 
mined by usage. As its primary sense is that of 
seven, or sevenfold, signifying that that to which it is 
applied consists of seven equal parts ; to determine 
its usage, it must be ascertained whether it is em- 
ployed to designate periods of time that have that 
characteristic ; and if so, what the radical or shortest 
period is of which it is used in that sense, as the 
name. And that it is used as a name, of periods of 



THE MEANING OF SHABUA. 301 

time that consist of seven equal parts, all know and 
admit. Not an expositor can be found who denies it. 
Dr. Tregelles, instead of denying it, only affirms that 
it does not, in Dan. ix. 24-27, denote weeks, but in 
place of that is an indicative or name of years. But 
if used as the name of a period of time that consists 
of seven equal parts, it would naturally be employed 
as the name of that septemized period — that is, the 
most radical ; — that is, that consists of the shortest 
times that are united in a septemized whole; and 
next of that septemized period which was most fre- 
quently used in the daily life of the Hebrews. Of 
that, whatever it is, it would naturally become the 
distinctive name. But that period is unquestionably 
the period denoted by the word week, consisting of 
seven days, or times of the earth's revolution on its 
axis. That was the first division of time that was 
instituted by the Most High, and was coeval with the 
creation : the seventh day from the first being set 
apart for rest and worship, and the observance of it 
made obligatory on the first pair and their posterity, 
through all subsequent time. The introduction of a 
longer septemized period did not take place, even ac- 
cording to the Hebrew chronology, till more than two 
thousand years later, at the appointment of the sab- 
batic years and Jubilees at Mount Sinai. The division 
of time into weeks was thus not only its first and 
shortest artificial division into periods, but was a divi- 
sion that from the frequent recurrence of the seventh 



302 THE MEANING OF SHABTTA. 

of its days, which was constituted a Sabbath, was 
kept continually before the eyes of the antediluvians, 
the patriarchs and the people of Israel, through their 
residence in Palestine down to the time of the Baby- 
lonian captivity. We may be certain, therefore, that 
it was used as the name of that division of time, and 
exclusively, which, being the first, the shortest and 
the reigning division, impressed itself on the whole 
surface of life. It accordingly is not employed as a 
designation of year-weeks, except in the single in- 
stance of Jacob's use of Rachel's seven, or week 
(Genesis xxix. 18, 20, 27, 28), where her seven or 
week is specifically defined as a seven, or week of 
years. It is indisputably, therefore, used in that in- 
stance symbolically, each day standing for a year. 
There is no other passage in which it is used to de- 
note seven years. In the appointment of the sab- 
batical year (Levit. xxv. 4-8), they are not called 
weeks of years, but sabbaths of years. They are, 
therefore, used as symbols, each seven days standing 
for seven years, and seven times for seven times seven 
years. In every other instance of the word in the 
Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, except Dan. ix., the 
term is used to denote literal days. There never was 
a clearer case, therefore, of the absolutely uniform 
use of a term. It is employed in every instance of 
its occurrence in the Bible in the sense I ascribe to it 
as the name of a seven, or week of days ; and owes 
its use accordingly to denote years in Genesis and 



THE MEANING OF SHABTJA. 303 

Leviticus, to its being employed as a symbol — the 
sevens, or weeks being expressly defined as weeks of 
years. Dr. Tregelles thus has not a solitary passage 
to verify his interpretation of it in Dan. ix. 24-27, as 
literally denoting a week of years. It is as clear, 
therefore, as demonstration can make it, that shabua, 
the term translated week, was used habitually and 
undeviatingly as the proper and distinctive name of a 
week of days ; and that that is its literal sense, there- 
fore, in the pasage, Dan. ix. 24-27. It is thence, by 
its being employed as a symbol, that the sevens of 
days signify sevens of years. If Dr. Tregelles denies 
that it is thus used as a symbol, he must, to be con- 
sistent, maintain that the seven days are used liter- 
ally to denote seven years, and exhibit that as its 
proper sense. But that he cannot prove, inasmuch as 
there is no example of its use in that sense ; and were 
he to prove it, it would overthrow the construction he 
now puts on it. If he admits that it is used as a 
symbol of years, he then abandons the theory respect- 
ing it he has advanced, and yields what I maintain. 

2. But Dr. Tregelles sees nothing of this; not a 
glance does he bestow on the usage of the term. In- 
stead, he endeavors to sustain his interpretation of it, 
by the statement that 

"In the present passage it takes its denomination from years 
which had been previously mentioned in Daniel's prayer. 
Daniel had been praying to God and making confession on 
behalf of his people, because that he saw the seventy years 



304 THE MEANING OF SHABUA. 

which had been denounced as the term of the captivity of 
Judah, were accomplished ; and thus the denomination of years 
connects itself with the answer granted to him. He had made 
inquiry about the accomplishment of seventy years. He re- 
ceives an answer relative to seventy heptads of years.''' 1 (p. 116.) 

This is truly an astonishing misapprehension ! There 
is not the slightest allusion in Daniel's prayer to the 
seventy years of the Jewish captivity. Instead of 
" inquiring about the accomplishment of seventy 
years," the prophet relates that he " understood by 
books the number of the years whereof the word of 
the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he 
would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of 
Jerusalem," (c. ix. 2.) In place of offering sup- 
plication for instruction in regard to that period 
which he already understood; that for which he 
prayed was that God would " turn away his anger 
from Jerusalem and from his holy mountain, and 
cause his face to shine upon the sanctuary, which was 
desolate," (v. 16-19.) He did not even ask for the 
restoration of the captives ; for that God had ex- 
pressly promised ; but, on the ground of that prom- 
ise, he breathed out the fervor of his heart solely for 
the re-erection of the sanctuary and the rebuilding 
of the city ; and most naturally and wisely, inas- 
much as they had not been so specifically promised, 
and especially because they were indispensable con- 
ditions of the resumption of the sacrificial offerings 
that were types of the suffering Messiah, and of the 



SHABUA MEANS A WEEK. 305 

coming of that great messenger of the covenant to 
accomplish the expiation of sin. It was accordingly 
because of his prayer for the restoration of the temple 
and its services, that the revelation that was made to 
him related so chiefly to the coming of the Messiah, 
the accomplishment of his expiatory work, and his as- 
cension to heaven. This conspicuous correlation of the 
revelation to the prayer, Dr. Tregelles unhappily over- 
looks. 

Such is the issue of his attempt to prove that 
the term he renders, heptad, is not the name of a week 
of days. What can be more certain than that he is 
wholly mistaken? "What can be clearer than that he 
does not fully see what his assumptions imply, and 
has not a glimpse of the principles which he so con- 
fidently opposes? 



306 DE. TBEGELLES* VIEWS OF THE RELATION 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Dr. Tregelles errs respecting the Eelation in -which a Time, Times, and 
Half a Time are employed— He mistakes in his Tiews of Daniel xii. 7. 
His denial that the twelve hundred and sixty days, forty-two 
months, and twenty-three hundred days are used as Symbols of 
longer Periods than they themselves literally express — His error in 
regard to Nebuchadnezzar's Seven Times. 

He next endeavors to demonstrate that none of 
the great periods of Daniel and John are employed 
as symbols to represent periods that are loDger than 
themselves. Thus he says : 

" And now, to consider the principal statements of time to 
which this supposed canon is applied : They are 

I. The time, times and a half, Daniel vii. 25, and xii. 7. The 
first of these periods is mentioned in the same manner in the 
book of Revelation xii. 14. In that book also we find a simi- 
lar period spoken of as forty and two months, xi. 2. xiii. 5, 
and twelve hundred and sixty days, xi. 3, xii. 6. In neither of 
the passages in Daniel does this designation of time occnr, in 
the midst of a symbolic prophecy at all ; for in ch. vii. the 
period is spoken of in the plain, literal interpretation of the 
symbolic horn ; which is said to mean a literal king, who shall 
subdue three literal kings (not described as horns in this part 
of the chapter) into whose hand the saints shall be given for a 
time, times, and a half a time — three years and a half. If we 
make these words symbolic, may we not arbitrarily explain 
away any other expressions of Scripture ?" — Pp. 117, 120. 






IN WHICH TIMES AKE USED. 307 

This attempt to divest the time, times, and half a 
time in Daniel vii. 25, of a symbolic meaning, is 
marked by much the same inaccuracy as his criti- 
cism on Exodus, Ezekiel, and Daniel ix. 24-27. 
Had he carefully scanned the passage, he would have 
seen that the acts ascribed to the horn, are not the 
acts of an animal, but of a man ; and properly, be- 
cause the horn had eyes like the eyes of a man, and 
a human mouth speaking great things, v. 8. The 
acts accordingly ascribed to it, are speaking very 
great things with a human mouth, looking more 
imperious or haughty than its fellows, making war 
on the saints, and prevailing against them ; which 
are acts, not of a mere horn, but of an intelligent 
being and a man. Now the passage that follows, 
which Dr. Tregelles represents as the plain, literal 
interpretation of the syvibolie horn is no interpreta- 
tion whatever of its acts, but a mere repetition of 
what had before been foreshown of it ; namely, that 
it should be diverse from the other horns, should 
subdue three kings, should speak words against the 
Most High, should wear out the saints, and should 
think to change times and law ; all which is what 
had before been ascribed to it, vs. 8,20,21. Its 
thinking to change times and law, was one of the 
forms in which its pride, its arrogance, and its ambi- 
tious look were to reveal themselves. There is 
nothing affirmed of it in vs. 24, 25, that is not em- 
braced in the description vs. 8, 20, 21, except that it 



308 HE MISTAKES IN REGARD TO DANIEL XII. 

stood for a king, which had already been implied in 
the ascription to it of eyes like the eyes of a man, 
and a mouth and speech. The only additional 
stroke in the delineation, vs. 24, 25, is the duration 
of its agency. The time, times, and a half, are mea- 
sures accordingly, of the acts of the horn as truly as 
they are of the acts of the king whom the horn repre- 
sents ; and they are therefore symbols, as truly as the 
horn itself is a symbol. "Will Dr. Tregelles deny this ? 
He cannot without a direct misrepresentation of the 
passage. His pretext accordingly that the designation 
of time in v. 25, is a mere interpretation of what had 
before been embodied in the description of the horn and 
his denial that it is a symbol, are equally in antago- 
nism with fact. He adds in regard to Daniel xii. 7 : 

" In chapter xii. there is no symbol at all ; the communicator 
of truth to Daniel, held up his right hand and his left hand 
unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth forever, that it 
shall be for a time, times, and a half. It seems to me as if the 
solemnity of this oath — by him that liveth forever — would 
exclude the thought of mere metaphor and symbol. At least I 
know of no words in Scripture on which emphatic exactitude 
is more impressed." — P. 120. 

This implies that if a metaphor or symbol had 
been used by the angel, it would have divested his 
oath and affirmation of " exactitude of meaning," 
and converted them into vagueness and uncertainty, 
A more sad oversight of the office of metaphors and 
symbols, and even of letters and vocal sounds, is not 



HIS MISAPPREHENSION OF METAPHORS. 309 

often exhibited. Dr. Tregelles seems to have for- 
gotten the very profession to which he is devoted. 
There is not a word nor letter in his volume ; there 
is not a syllable nor a mark in the manuscripts and 
editions of the Scriptures he is accustomed to read ; 
there is not a voice that passes from his tongue, nor 
an accent that reaches his ears from the lips of others, 
that is not a sign of something that differs from 
itself; and in hundreds of instances in a thousand, 
stands for something to which it bears no analogy. 
Yet amid these vast processes which bespeak more 
impressively than any other function of the mind, 
the greatness of an intellectual nature — he flutters 
and falters at the thought that the Almighty should 
employ a metaphor or a symbol in revealing his pur- 
poses — from the feeling that the novelty and intri- 
cacy of such methods of expressing truth must baffle 
his powers, and plunge him into a whirling sea, 
where all landmarks are lost, and chart and compass 
fail. But symbols and metaphors are as easy of inter- 
pretation as spoken voices, or literal words. The 
question to which the angel's oath was an answer 
was, " How long shall it be to the end of these 
wonders?" How long a period is to intervene 
between their beginning and their end ? Here the 
fact is distinctly given, that the time, times, and half 
a time, are the measure of the span between the 
commencement and the end of these wonders. And 
as the agents of those wonders are represented by 



310 HIS EEEOR m BESPECT TO 

symbols, the period they were to occupy is also 
indicated by a symbol. But who are the agents of 
those wonders, and what are the wonders themselves ? 
The agents are the parties who are represented by 
the eleventh horn of the beast, with the eyes and 
mouth and speech of a man ; and the wonders them- 
selves are the mysteries and monstrosities of its pride, 
its blasphemies, and its war on God's people. This 
is seen from the fact, that the period here given that 
was to pass before the end, is the same as that 
assigned to the proud boasts, the blasphemies, and 
the persecutions of the horn, Daniel vii. 8, 20-25 ; 
and it began, doubtless, soon after the delivery of the 
times and law into the power symbolized by that 
horn ; and is to continue till near the time when that 
power is to be destroyed. It is a symbol, therefore, 
and its employment here in the oath of the angel, 
was as legitimate as its use was as a symbol, chapter 
vii. 25 ; and as the employment was of the beast, the 
horns, or any other agent, act, or effect that occurs 
in the visions of that chapter. 
He proceeds : 

" But when we turn to the book of Revelation, and see how 
variously this period is expressed, 1260 days, forty and two 
months, a time, times, and a half, it seems as if care had been 
taken to prevent all possibility of misconception, whether 
occurring in symbolic description, or in literal explanation, the 
same isochronic expressions are repeated." — P. 120. 

Here Dr. Tregelles alleges the fact that the periods 



THE VARIETY OF SYMBOLS OF TIME. 311 

he specifies are so variously expressed, as a proof that 
they cannot be used as symbols of longer periods 
than themselves ! He forgets that if they are used 
as symbols, they must le natural days, in order that 
they may bear the requisite analogy to years, which 
it is their office to represent. The fact that they are 
days, is an indubitable proof that they symbolize 
years. But that Dr. Tregelles cannot comprehend. 
On identically the same ground, he must deny that 
any other symbol in the prophecy is a representative 
of a being, act, or event that differs from itself. Was 
not the monster beast, Daniel vii. 7-11-17-27, a 
real beast? Did not the prophet see it with his 
bodily eyes, emerge from the sea and take its position 
on the land? Did he not see its iron teeth, its 
brazen claws, its ten horns, and its eleventh horn 
with the eyes and mouth of a man ; and did he not 
hear it speaking great words ? Did he not witness 
its fierce and bloody acts toward inferior animals 
and toward the people of God ; and finally, see it 
arraigned, and consigned to the burning flame ? 
Most assuredly, if as Dr. Tregelles affirms, the fact 
that the times that are used as symbols are real days, 
proves that they are not symbols ; then for the 
same reason, the fact that the great symbols taken 
from the animal and material world, were real 
existences in the visions of exactly the nature which 
their names import, is a proof that they were not 
symbols, but were or are to appear in their own 



312 HIS MI3TAKE OF A REVALATION 

proper nature on the earth, and act out the great 
tragedy that is ascribed to them. Let Dr. Tregelles 
disprove this if he can. Let him, on the other hand, 
admit that the great beasts of Daniel were realities, 
and that they were, nevertheless, mere symbols of 
other agents that differ essentially from themselves, 
and he will be obliged, for the same reason, to admit 
that the periods of time that are used to measure the 
agency of those symbols, are also symbols, and are 
employed on the same principle as are the beasts, the 
horns, and their actions to represent periods that 
differ from themselves. 

" The second passage," he says, (Daniel viii.) " is literally 
unto two thousand three hundred evenings-mornings! refer- 
ring to the offering of the daily sacrifice each morning and 
evening. This also occurs in an explanation ; so that the sym- 
bolic theory (even if it had any true foundation, instead of 
being, as it is, a gratuitous assumption) would avail nothing. 
The expression seems such as intentionally to exclude all thought 
of other than real days." — P. 121. 

This is but another mere assertion which he employs 
to determine the most important questions against 
the plain and unequivocal teaching of the prophecy. 
What an unwarrantable assumption ! Who author- 
ized Dr. Tregelles to allege it as a self-evident maxim, 
that God could not recognise the existence of sym- 
bols in the prophecies which he himself interprets, 
nor use additional symbols to give further knowledge 
to the prophet and to his people ? For these assump- 



FOR AN INTERPRETATION. 313 

tions lie couched in the postulate on which he here 
proceeds. He first assumes that the twenty-three 
hundred evenings-mornings are used in such a con- 
nection, as to show that they are not employed 
as symbols ; and then infers from that, that the 
whole theory that times are used as symbols, is 
groundless, and false. But he is wholly mistaken ; 
first, in the representation that the twenty- three 
hundred evenings-mornings are used in the interpreta- 
tion of what had previously been revealed. Instead, 
they were expressly given by the angel as the 'mea- 
sure of the preceding vision, in answer to the inquiry 
by one of the holy ones : " How long the vision ;" 
and they are the medium of a wholly new revelation; 
instead of an explanation of what had before been 
foreshown. He is equally in error in the virtual 
assumption that the Spirit of God could not, in inter- 
preting a prophecy, recognise it as symbolic, and 
make the interpretation an express explanation of its 
symbols. For this prophecy itself is most certainly 
symbolic ; and is as indubitably interpreted by the 
Spirit as such. This will be seen from an analysis 
of the vision. The prophet had seen a little horn 
come up under one of the four horns of the goat, 
which waxed exceeding great toward the south, and 
toward the east, and toward the pleasant land. And 
it waxed great even to the host of heaven, and it cast 
down some of the host and the stars to the ground, 
and stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified hin> 

U 



314 THE HORN OF THE GOAT 

self even to the Prince of the host, and by him the 
daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his 
sanctuary (the sanctuary of the Prince of the stars) was 
cast down. And an host was given him against the 
daily sacrifice by wickedness ; and it cast down the 
truth to the ground ; and it practiced and prospered* 
The great agent in this fierce and heaven-daring 
career, was the sixth horn of the goat ; and it was 
a symbol. The power which it represents was wholly 
different from itself, in nature, sphere, and agency. 
Its acts, also, are symbols — namely, its enlarging 
itself greatly toward the south, and toward the east, 
and toward the land of the Jews ; its shooting itself 
up among the stars, and casting some of them down 
to the dust, and trampling on them ; and its magnify- 
ing itself against Messiah, the Prince of the heavenly 
world, and taking away the daily sacrifice, and cast- 
ing down the place of his sanctuary ; and finally, its 
having a host against the daily sacrifice, and casting 
down the truth to the ground. All these acts are as 
truly and exclusively symbolic, as the horn that ex- 
erted them is. They cannot be literal. The mere horn 
of a goat could not, acting in the sphere of its nature, 
conquer the whole of the Persian empire. It could not 
shoot itself up millions of millions of miles into the 
arch of heaven, and strike down suns and planets to 
the mountains and plains of our globe, and trample 
on them. Our earth, which is but a speck compared 
to those orbs, could not receive a group of them on 



AND ITS ACTS ARE SYMBOLS. 315 

its bosom. Li like manner, its magnifying itself 
against the Messiah, and taking away the daily 
sacrifice, and casting down the place of his sanctuary, 
are purely symbolic acts, wholly out of the sphere of 
an animal that has no apprehension of the Messiah ; 
no knowledge of the daily sacrifice which was the 
type of his vicarious death ; and no power to overturn 
his temple and reduce it to a ruin. All these acts of 
the horn are representative of analogous acts of the 
power of which the horn was the symbol. Taking 
away the daily sacrifice leveling the temple with the 
dust, and casting down the truth to the ground, are 
as exclusively representative, and denote acts that 
differ from themselves, as clearly, as striking suns 
and planets from their stations in the distant realms 
of space, and treading them into the dust of our 
globe, denote acts that differ from themselves. The 
prophecy, then (verses 9-12), is indubitably symbolic. 
It is expressed altogether through symbols. There is 
not a syllable in it that fills any office, except in the 
delineation of its representative agents, objects, acts 
and effects. What ground now has Dr. Tregelles to 
interpose and announce, with an authoritative voice, 
as though he were uttering a self-evident maxim, that 
the Almighty does not and cannot, in interpreting it, 
treat it as symbolic ? For the whole adaptedness of 
his argument to the end for which he employs it, lies 
in that pretext. If he admits that God may use 
symbols as a medium of prediction, and may inter- 



316 THE H0EN OF THE GOAT 

pret them as such, his inference against " the symbolic 
theory," falls to the ground. But what can trans- 
cend that deduction in thoughtlessness and error ! 
God surely has a right to interpret the prediction 
according to its nature. If he pleased, he had an 
equal right to employ additional symbols to make 
new revelations to meet the necessities of the prophet 
and of his people in regard to this prophecy. "What 
then is necessary to verify the fact ? First, that he 
interprets verses 9-12 as symbolic ; and next, that he 
employs additional symbols to express the time 
through which the action of the horn was to extend, 
and to indicate the event that is to mark its termina- 
tion, that proceed on the same principle of analogy 
as that on which the horn, and its acts, the daily 
sacrifice, and the temple, are employed. The first, is 
apparent from the interpretation given by the angel 
of verses 9-12. " Xow, the great horn being broken, 
whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms — dynas- 
ties — shall stand up out of the nation ; but not in his 
power. And in the latter time of their kingdom, 
when the transgressors are come to the full, a Idng 
of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sen- 
tences, shall stand up. And Ids power shall be 
mighty ; but not by his own power : and he shall 
destroy wonderfully ; and shall prosper and practice ; 
and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. 
And through his policy, also, he shall cause craft to 
prosper in his hand ; and he shall magnify himself in 



AND ITS ACTS ARE SYMBOLS. 317 

Lis heart, and by peace shall destroy many : He 
shall also stand up against the Prince of princes, but 
he shall be broken without hand " (verses 21-25). 
Such is the interpretation given of the vision of the 
horn, of verses 9-12 ; and it treats it throughout as 
the representative of an agent, wholly different in 
nature from itself. Every stroke in the delineation 
exhibits it as a human being, or line of human 
beings, and all the characteristics and acts ascribed 
to it, as those of human beings. He is a " TcingP He 
has a stern and imperious countenance. He is skilled 
in artifice and deceit. He is to rise to great power, 
but not by his own strength ; his power being derived 
from the Roman imperium in the west. He shall 
destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper in his under- 
takings. He shall destroy the mighty and the holy 
people, the Jews. Through his cunning he will 
cause deceit to prosper ; and will magnify himself, 
and by peace destroy many. And he will also stand 
up against the Prince of princes. All the acts and 
achievements thus foreshown of him, are unlike those 
attributed to the horn. Not one in the prediction 
has its exact likeness in the interpretation. While 
they are parallels throughout, each is suited to the 
nature of the agent of which it is predicated ; the 
spirit, acts and achievements of the king, being in 
his sphere, what the powers, acts and achievements 
of the horn are to an animal that has such an 
aggressive organ as the horn of the goat. Nothing 



318 THE EVENINGS-HOKNIN'GS AEE SYMBOLS. 

can be more indubitable, therefore, than that the 
prophecy respecting the horn is interpreted as sym- 
bolic. 

It is equally certain also that antecedently to that 
interpretation, and wholly independent of it, two ad- 
ditional symbols are employed in answer to the in- 
quiry of the holy one, for the purpose of showing 
the length of the period over which the vision ex- 
tended ; and the event that is to signalize its close. 
Let the reader scan the passage, and he will see that 
this prediction of time is a new prediction, not an 
interpretation, as Dr. Tregelles represents of the 
vision in vs. 9-12 : 

" Then I heard one holy one speaking ; and another holy one 
said unto that holy one who spake : Unto when is the vision 
of the daily sacrifice and the wicked one that is to lay waste, 
to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under- 
foot ? and he said unto me : Unto two thousand three hundred 
evenings-mornings. Then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed," 
vs. 13, 14. 

Here the answer to the question in respect to the 
period through which the vision extended, and the 
indication of the event which is to mark the termina- 
tion of that period, are not explanations of the pre- 
ceding vision, but are new revelations. Not a hint 
had before been given in regard to either ; and in- 
stead of being explained like vs. 9-12, they are left 
uninterpreted; and they are symbols. The period 
of time is most indubitably such, as it is expressly 



THE CLEANSING CF THE SANCTUARY A SYMBOL. 319 

given as the measure of the horn's acts and the chief 
effects it was to work ; namely, the taking away of 
the daily sacrifice, the casting down of the sanctuary, 
and the trampling of the Jewish people under foot. 
As those acts of the horn and the effects it wrought, 
like the horn itself, and the ground to which it cast 
the stars, were symbols, so the period which is given 
as the measure of their duration, must also be a sym- 
bol. It cannot be the measure of any thing else, 
for there is nothing else in the prediction the dura- 
tion of which can be the subject of such a measure. 
As the two thousand and three hundred evenings- 
mornings stand in the same relation to two thousand 
three hundred years, as that in which the horn stands 
to the group of agents which it represents ; having a 
general analogy to them ; they must for the same 
reason be interpreted as a symbol. To deny them 
that office, is to contradict their nature, and imply 
that God uses them in a sense that is not in harmony 
with the peculiar laws of the vision, and is suited to 
baffle and mislead his people. 

The cleansing of the sanctuary is likewise a sym- 
bol. As the sanctuary itself is a symbol ; as pollut- 
ing and casting it down, are symbols ; so most indu- 
bitably is its cleansing a symbol. To take the 
sanctuary as a literal edifice, and its purification as a 
literal removal of defilements and defacements, by 
the processes by which ordinary edifices are cleansed, 
and made fit for the use to which they are appropri- 



320 HIS EREOE IN EESPECT TO THE SEVEN TIMES. 

ated, is to deny to the prophecy its true nature, and 
materialize it, as though it treated of a mere goat, 
and other sheer external and physical objects and 
effects, in place of human agents who act in imme- 
diate relations to God, and of impieties of which 
they are guilty toward him, and atrocities they per- 
petrate on his worshipers. The casting down and 
desecration of the sanctuary on the one side, and its 
cleansing on the other, can no more be taken as lite- 
rally denoting what the terms philologically mean, 
than the acts of the horn in upshooting itself to hea- 
ven, and casting some of the stars to the ground, can 
be taken in their mere verbal sense, and not as sym- 
bols. The prophecy, vs. 13, 14, is framed on pre- 
cisely the same principle as that of vs. 9-12, and is 
to be interpreted by the same law of analogy. 

Such is the issue of Dr. Tregelles' attempt to 
divest this important passage of its symbolic charac- 
ter. Into what more unfortunate blunder could he 
have fallen ! What more decisive proof could he 
have given that he has failed to master the subjects 
which he effects to treat with so much accuracy ! 

He proceeds to Daniel iv : 

" In Daniel iv. 16, 23, 32, king Nebuchadnezzar was told that 
he should be driven from men, etc., till seven times should pass 
over him." This on the year-day theory would be a period of 
two thousand five hundred and twenty years; longer than 
from the time of Nebuchadnezzar to the present day ; and the 



THERE ARE TWO CLASSE8 OF SYMBOLS. 321 

term seven times occurs both in the symbolic part of the chap- 
ter and the literal, so that the force of words cannot be avoided 
by any such distinction. Nebuchadnezzar, however, says (v. 
28), 'All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar.' The pro- 
phecy related to literal years; and in literal years it was 
accomplished. If then, in chapter iv. seven times are seven 
years, of course the period in chapter vii. is half that number. 
Thus king Nebuchadnezzar is an unexceptional witness that the 
prophetic Scripture does not admit the year-day theory." — 
P. 123. 

The only apology for Dr. Tregelles' mistake here, 
is his inacquaintance with the principles on which 
symbols are used. The symbols drawn from the 
animal and material world which have thus far been 
noticed, are employed in the relation of analogy ; 
and denote agents, objects, acts and events that dif- 
fer from themselves. But beside these and other 
kindred symbols, there is a large class that are used, 
not on the ground of general resemblance, but in the 
relation of identity or absolute likeness. Thus God 
was never represented in the visions of Daniel and 
Jobn by a created symbol, but appeared in all in- 
stances in his own person, seated on a throne sur- 
rounded by insignia of his deity, and attended by 
hosts of holy intelligences that worshiped him as the 
creator and ruler of all. Rev. iv. v. ; Dan. vii. 9, 10. 
In like manner, Christ in all instances appeared in 
the visions in his own person ; never by a mere cre- 
ated symbol. And the reason obviously was, that 

14* 



322 THERE ARE TWO CLASSE3 OF SYMBOLS. 

no created being or object could form a suitable 
representative of the uncreated, all-creating, and 
infinitely powerful and wise. To have used a crea- 
ture as his representative, would have been to imply 
that he was himself a creature, and not the Self- 
existent. There are numerous instances also in which 
angels represent angels of their own nature and rank, 
such as the innumerable millions that stood around 
the throne of the Ancient of days, Daniel vii. 9, 10 ; 
and the throne of the Father and the Son, Apoc. 
v. 11, 12 ; and undoubtedly because no other symbol 
could so adequately indicate their nature, and their 
relations to God. In other instances, individual 
angels are employed as symbols of great numbers of 
men, such as the angel from the sunrising, Rev. vii. 
2, the angel invested with a rainbow, ch. x. and the 
three angels, ch. xiv. proclaiming messages to men. 
These beings of a higher order are employed, that 
they may indicate more impressively, the conspi- 
cuity, power, and influence of the groups and succes- 
sions of men whom they represent. 

And finally, there are many instances in which men 
appeared in their own persons in the visious, and 
represented themselves, because there is no other 
symbol that could present them in their relations to 
one another, and to God ; and under the sway of the 
thoughts and affections by which they are to be 
prompted in the scenes that are foreshown. Such 
are the kings and their armies at the advent of the 



THE SEVEN TIMES SYMBOLS OF SEVEN TIMES. 323 

Lamb under the sixth seal, Rev. vi. 15-17 and xix. 
17-21, the two witnesses, xi. 3-12, and others. And 
the reason is, that no other symbol could adequately 
represent them in the conditions in which those for 
whom they stand, are to appear. Now the seven 
times that were to pass over Nebuchadnezzar, were 
undoubtedly employed as representatives of them- 
selves, because no other was suited to give to him 
and his court a true indication of the period during 
which his exile from his palace and throne was to 
continue. Neither the king nor his people knew any 
thing of the use of days or times, as representatives 
of a longer period than themselves. Had the dream 
and the interpretation given days or times as symbols 
of a longer period than themselves as the duration 
of his humiliation, they might have been misunder 
stood, and led to uncertainty and distrust, especially 
among the numerous nations and tribes living under 
his sceptre, whose language was not Chaldaie ; yet 
to whom it appears from the decree addressed to 
them by Nebuchadnezzar, the dream and its inter- 
pretation were made known. It was the part of 
wisdom, therefore, and righteousness to guard against 
that danger of misconception by using a period, the 
exact length of which was well known, and using its 
name in its natural and established sense, and em- 
ploying the same period, and the same name of it, 
both in the prophecy and in the interpretation. 
Can Dr. Tregelles gainsay this explanation of the 



324 SEVENTY YEARS OF JEREMIAH WERE LITERAL. 

use of seven times in the prophecy, as well as in the 
interpretation ? He perhaps has never noticed the 
difference in the relations in which the two great 
classes of the symbols are employed, and will not be 
aware of it unless these pages meet his eye. King 
Nebuchadnezzar, however, is not a witness, excep- 
tional, or ' unexceptional,' that prophetic Scripture 
does not admit the year-day theory. 

He alleges Daniel, as well as Nebuchadnezzar, as 
showing that he did not regard the periods of time 
in his prophecies as used as symbols on the principle 
of analogy, of longer periods than they literally ex- 
press. 

" The next witness is Daniel the prophet himself. In ch. ix. 
2, he tells us that he understood by books — the prophecy of 
Jeremiah — that the Lord would accomplish seventy years, in the 
desolations of Jerusalem. Daniel did not understand the period 
spoken of by Jeremiah, according to the arbitrary canon which 
some would now apply to his own prophecies. He understood 
seventy years to mean seventy years ; and not ttco thousand Jive 
hundred and twenty years. Thus, this very chapter of Daniel, 
from which some (even though it is a prophecy free from all 
symbol) would draw a proof of their theory, supplies decisive 
evidence against it," pp. 123, 124. 

Dr. Tregelles should have been incapable of resorting 
to a pretext like this. Daniel utters no testimony in ch. 
ix. 2, or anywhere else, against interpreting the periods 
of time that occur in the symbolic revelations that 
were made to him, as symbols, denoting years in 



THE PERIODS OF DANIEL WEKE SYMBOLS. «325 

place of days. His not regarding the seventy years 
of the captivity as employed in that relation, to sig- 
nify two thousand five hundred and twenty years, is 
surely no proof that the time, times, and a half a 
time, of ch. vii., and the twenty-three hundred days 
of ch. viii., are not used on that principle. Does Dr. 
Tregelles disown the difference between a symbolic 
and a mere language prophecy ? Does he, in a word, 
mean to deny that there is any diversity between 
them ; and maintain that it is as reasonless and false 
to interpret a prophecy couched in symbols as denot- 
ing agents, acts, and events that differ from the sym- 
bols themselves, as it is to interpret mere language 
predictions as though they were symbols ? If not, 
why does he allege the fact that Daniel regarded the 
seventy years of Jeremiah as literal years and nothing 
else-; as a proof that periods of time, when used as 
symbols, were not understood by him and are not to 
be interpreted by us, as representing periods longer 
than themselves ? If that is not the view which he 
entertains, his assumptions and conclusions, assured- 
ly, are altogether illogical. If Jeremiah's prophecy 
was not conveyed through symbols, but mere words, 
while the revelation made to Daniel, ch. vii., is em- 
bodied in symbols, not in words, how does it follow 
from the fact that Daniel interpreted Jeremiah ac- 
cording to the medium through wdiich his prophecy is 
expressed ; prove that Daniel's own prophecy is not to 
be interpreted according to its peculiar nature as em- 



326 DR. TREGELLES' EMBARRASSMENTS IRREMEDIABLE. 

bodied in symbols ; but is to be construed as though 
it were a mere language prophecy ? What utter 
confusion reigns in Dr. Tregelles' reasoning ! "Will 
he clear up this perplexity? Let him turn which 
way he will, he overthrows himself. If he admits 
that a symbolic differs from an unsymbolical pro- 
phecy, and grants that symbols are to be interpreted 
as symbols ; then he abandons his assumptions and 
conclusions in this passage. If, on the other hand, 
he asserts that there is no radical difference between 
a symbolic and an unsymbolic prophecy, then he 
contradicts the divine word, and sets aside all the 
interpretations which the Spirit himself has given of 
the symbols of Daniel and John. But I am weary 
of pointing out his misrepresentations and perver- 
sions of the prophecy. The reader has ample proofs 
in the foregoing criticisms, that he is mistaken in all 
his leading views, and that whatever may be his skill 
in other spheres, he has not the special qualifications 
that are requisite for the task which he has under- 
taken in his volume on Daniel. 



PERIODS OF TIME ARE SYMBOLS OF TIME. 327 



CHATTER XYII. 

That Periods of Time are used as Symbols of greater Periods than them- 
selves is proved on a vast scale by Events; as in the Conquest by the 
Romans of the Greek Empire, their Destruction of Jerusalem, and 
their Persecution of the Saints. 

If the times, the months, and the days of the 
prophecies of Daniel and John, are employed as 
symbols of periods longer than themselves, according 
to the ratio of days to years, the fact of their use in 
that relation must have been demonstrated by the 
appearance in the great theatre of the Roman world, 
of a vast succession of agents, and events that 
answer to the predictions ; and so obviously and 
fully, as to make it apparent that they are the actors 
and events that are foreshown in those prophecies. 
If no such persons, no such agencies, and no such 
effects have had a place in the western empire and 
filled it with their presence and their power, during 
the long round of ages that has revolved since their 
career must have begun — if days are not used as repre- 
sentatives of years ; then demonstratively either that 
construction of the prophetic periods is mistaken ; or 
else the prophecies themselves are false. If, on the 
other hand, successions of persons, of exactly the 
rank, the character and the agency foreshown in the 



328 THE AGENTS FORESHOWN IN THESE PERIODS. 

visions, have appeared in that scene, and acted the 
parts and met the catastrophes predicted of them ; 
and in forms so conspicuous and on a scale so vast, 
as to prove with the utmost amplitude and certainty 
that they are the identical beings and events that are 
depicted and foreshown in those prophecies ; then it 
is clear beyond doubt that those predicted periods, 
are periods not of days, but of years. 

Now the agents, acts and events foretold in those 
prophecies, are of a nature and of a conspicuity, that 
render them more easily recognizable, and more sus- 
ceptive of identification and proof, than any others 
that appear in the world. The great agents in the 
tragedies that are predicted, are not unofficial indivi- 
duals who act in a secluded sphere, where no spec- 
tators witness their acts, and no means exist for con- 
veying a knowledge of them to contemporaries, or 
transmitting it to later generations. Instead, they 
are personages of the greatest notoriety and cele- 
brity; whose acts are official and public, and who 
are surrounded by crowds of spectators that behold 
all their actions, witness every play of their features, 
and feel impulses in their lives and fortunes, from 
every step of their procedure. They are emperors 
and kings ; they are conquerors that steep the earth 
in blood. They are merciless tyrants that crush their 
subjects with oppression. They are ambitious, usurp- 
ing and apostate priests, that arrogate the rights 
of God, and persecute his people. They are great 



STANDS FOR HONARCH8 CONQUERORS AND PRIESTS. 329 

civil and military bodies ; vast ecclesiastical organi- 
zations, that extend their sway over wide domains, 
and give law to the nations. They are therefore 
more easily determinable than any other classes 
of men, and more sure to leave a record of their 
names and their deeds. Most of the historians, ac- 
cordingly, of the civilized world, for the last twenty- 
five centuries, are occupied by these very actors and 
their actions. All the archives that have come down 
from the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Greek empires and 
the early and later ages of the Roman, relate to them 
and their achievements ; and all the great monuments 
of art that survive from those times were the work 
of their hands. To hold that they have not existed ; 
to affirm that their forms and features are not those 
which are depicted in Daniel and John, is therefore 
to deny that we have any knowledge of the past ; is 
to denounce the records of history as unreliable and 
false. 

The Roman power, for example, has exhibited all 
the characteristics, and exerted all the great agencies, 
that are ascribed to it, except the modifications it is 
to assume, and the peculiar acts it is to exert that 
are yet future, and are shortly to precede its final 
overthrow. Thus it has verified the predictions that 
like the monster shape, which was employed to re- 
present it, it should be unlike all other civil and 
military governments ; that it should be aggressive, 
resistless, bloody, and wanton in the oppression and 



330 THE ROMAN POWER HAS EXHIBITED ALT, 

destruction of those whom it assailed and conquered. 
Like a voracious and insatiable beast, it has crushed 
its victims with its iron teeth, torn them with its 
brazen claws, and in its rage and fury, stamped them 
in the dust. But beyond these general character- 
istics that marked its career, especially till it had 
reached the acme of its power, it exerted all the pecu- 
liar and distinctive agencies that are ascribed to it, and 
that have no parallel in any other civil and military em- 
pire. Thus, after having extended its conquests over 
all Italy, and over Carthage at the South, and Gaul, 
Spain, and Britain at the West and North, it entered 
the empire of Alexander, and overthrowing the Mace- 
donian horn of the goat, substituted itself in its place, 
according to the prediction, Dan. viii., and spread its 
conquests over Asia Minor, Syria, Mesopotamia, 
Palestine and Egypt ; and soon transferred its throne 
to Nicomedia, and ultimately to Constantinople, and 
reigned there over the East through a long series of 
years. On the revolt of the Jews in the reign of JSTero, 
a Boman army under Yespasian, and afterwards 
under Titus entered Judea, and after conquering and 
demolishing the inferior cities and fortresses, and 
strewing the land with slaughter and desolation, 
besieged and took Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, 
and swept the few who survived, as with a deluge, 
into exile and slavery, according to the prediction, 
Daniel ix. 26, 27, that the people of a prince should 
come and destroy the city and sanctuary, as with a 



THE CHARACTERISTICS ASCRIBED TO IT. 331 

Hood. And tins was not an ordinary or slight event ; 
nor Las it lost its significance by the lapse of eighteen 
centuries. It was one of the most momentous cala- 
mities God ever inflicted on a guilty people. It 
changed the history not only of the Jewish race 
through the ages that followed, but of the whole 
civilized world, and fills a place, and is to answer 
ends in the divine administration, that are trans- 
cended by no others. It was essential as an aveng- 
ing judgment, to the manifestation of God's righte- 
ousness and its appointment, its execution, and the 
issues that are to spring from it, are to be made 
known not only to men, but to the universe, and their 
equity and wisdom be so unveiled, as to prompt the 
approval and adoration of all holy beings. Other- 
wise, it would issue in discredit and defeat. And 
finally, this great act of the Roman power as the 
instrument of God's justice, is attested in the most 
ample manner both by the Jewish nation and by the 
Romans. No fact in the history of the world is more 
indisputable, none is more widely known. The con- 
quest of Macedonia, Syria, and Palestine, destruction 
of Jerusalem and the temple, and dispersion of the 
Jewish nation, fell within the fourth and fifth cen- 
turies of the period symbolized by the twenty-three 
hundred evenings-mornings, and shows that the Ro- 
man power was acting at that remote period in 
the sphere assigned to it by the prophecy of Daniel, 
and therefore is not restricted in its agency to the 



332 THE SIXTH HORN OF THE GOAT 

narrow space of 1260 literal days that are yet 
future. 

The next great act of that Roman horn, which had 
sprung up in the limits of the Greek empire, was its 
waxing great toward the host of heaven, and casting 
down some of the host and of the stars to the ground 
and stamping upon them ; a gigantic act, indicating 
unparalleled strength, and ambition, and bespeaking 
an infuriate rage against the maker of the orbs and 
his kingdom. What acts of human beings can pre- 
sent a correlation to those assaults on God and his 
people ? The stars of the firmament are symbols of 
the saints of the Most High, who, it was revealed to 
his people in a later vision, are to shine as the 
brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever, 
and ever. The casting down of those stars from 
heaven and treading them in the dust, represented 
the dejection of the saints and ministers of the Most 
High from their sphere in his kingdom on earth by 
persecution, and consigning them to dungeons, to 
the mines, and to the block. And this had its fulfill- 
ment in the persecutions of the people, and especially 
the ministers of the Christian churches by Diocle- 
tian, Galerius, and Licinius. The audacity of those 
monsters was in their sphere, what the towering 
arrogance and rage of the horn was in its war on the 
stars. They are not to be envied for their discern- 
ment and taste, who see nothing of the dazzling light 
in which the rights of God and the dignity of his 



HAS EXERTED ALL THE ACTS ASCRIBED TO IT. 333 

true worshipers, on the one side ; and the impious- 
ness of his usurping enemies on the other, are 
set forth in this symbolization. What mere word- 
picture could approach it in the strength and 
grandeur in which it presents the greatness and 
sacredness of God's prerogatives ; the place his true 
children hold in his regards; and their audacious- 
ness in sin who tread his truthful worshipers in the 
dust ! And this fell within the first third of the 
twenty-three hundred days ; and shows again that 
the Roman power was in that distant age, fulfilling 
the work of persecution and impiety, that was fore- 
shown of it. No facts are more indubitable than 
that the emperors of the east exerted the acts and 
wrought the effects here ascribed to them. They are 
recorded by the pens of a great number of writers, 
Pagan as well as Christian ; the decrees of Diocletian 
consigning the churches to demolition, the Scriptures to 
the flames, and the ministers of the word to the mines, 
the stake and the block, are still in existence. No one 
has ever questioned their genuineness. No one has 
ever denied the truth of the narratives in which these 
events have descended to us. To doubt them, is as 
reasonless and absurd as it were to doubt that Dio- 
cletian, Galerius, Licinius, and other persecutors of 
that class were ever invested with power in the Ro- 
man empire, or had a place among its population. 

The next impious act of that horn, was its magni- 
fying itself against the Prince of the host, and taking 



334 THE SIXTH HORN OF THE GOAT 

away from him the daily sacrifice, and casting down 
the place of his sanctuary ; having a host against the 
daily sacrifice, and casting down the truth to the 
ground. This had its fulfillment first in the arrogation 
by Constantine and his successors of the right to legis- 
late over the church which belongs only to Christ, 
and next in the rejection of his work of expiation, 
and substitution in its place, of superstitious rites, 
relics, idols, and other inventions of men as a ground 
of justification. And the prophecy presents in these 
symbolic acts, a true picture of that usurpation of 
Christ's rights, and rejection of him as the sacrifice 
for sin. For as the literal taking away of the daily 
sacrifice, and casting down of the place of his sanc- 
tuary, while the Mosaic institute was existing and 
obligatory, would have been to debar worshipers 
from the offerings and services which were the 
medium to them of their faith and their acceptance. 
So the preclusion of Christian worshipers from look- 
ing to Christ's blood for redemption, by false doc- 
trines and vain and impious rites ; and closing or 
destroying the edifices in which a true homage was 
presented to God ; was taking Christ from them as 
their expiation, and debaring them as individual 
churches and communities from worshiping him. 
And this impious work, which who, apart from the 
prediction, could have foreseen or deemed possible, 
was wrought by Constantine and his successors in 
the fourth, fifth, sixth, and following centuries, and 



HAS EXERTED ALL THE ACTS ASCRIBED TO IT. 335 

spread like a courtly fashion, through the whole em- 
pire. They were introduced by them and their civil 
subordinates ; not by the ministers of the church. A 
large body of the saints of the Most High resisted 
them for a period, and thousands and thousands were 
persecuted and consigned to martyrdom for their faith^ 
ful denunciation of them, and unfaltering maintenance 
of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus. At 
length superstition, the homage of relics, images and 
saints in the eastern empire ; and in the western espe- 
cially, the idolatry of the mass, were legalized and 
enforced by the clergy themselves, and became, and 
have continued to be, to the present day, the religion 
of the Greek and Latin churches. In what other 
form could this astounding apostacy from God have 
been presented in such strength, and clothed in such 
awful hues ! It is a direct rejection of Christ and 
his redemption, and the substitution of a false and 
impious system in their place ! The question whether 
this prophecy has been fulfilled, is therefore of 
immeasurable moment. It is the question whether 
Christ really occupies the place which the Scriptures 
assign him in the work of redemption! It is the 
question whether the religion of the Greek and 
Catholic church is the true or a false religion ! 
There is certainly no dearth of means for deciding 
that question. 

That the war on Christ and his sacrifice, and the 
introduction of a superstitious and idolatrous religion 



336 NO OTHER AGENTS, ACTS, OE EVENTS 

took place in the age to which I have referred, is 
certain from the most ample testimony of the histo- 
rians of the period, the decrees and enactments of the 
emperors themselves, and the acts and canons of 
ecclesiastics. And their agency in this apostacy, in 
place of being denied, has been admitted and ap- 
proved by the whole Greek and Roman church 
through all the ages that have followed. Those great 
acts of revolt from God are indisputably, therefore, 
the fulfillment of this prophecy. That such exact 
coincidences with it are not its accomplishment, is 
impossible. No other apostacies of the kind have 
ever taken place in the Roman empire. No other 
events can be denoted by the symbols, consistently 
with the laws of analogy. If these are not their ful- 
fillment, it were vain to look for their verification. 
The supposition that this concurrence of the events 
with the prediction, is no proof that the events are 
those that were contemplated in the prophecy, is an 
impeachment of God's truth and rectitude. It im- 
plies that his word and providence are deceptive in 
regard to millions of the most conspicuous and influ- 
ential agents, and events, and through a period of 
many ages of the world; and if assented to, must 
naturally destroy all faith in the other prophecies. 
Let those who are venturing on such an arraignment 
of God, pause and arrest the dread imputations on 
him that are passing from their lips. 

The next great prediction respecting the Roman 



ANSWER TO THE SYMBOLS. 337 

power, is that of the fourth trumpet of the Apoca- 
lypse, in which the fall of the western emperor and 
his associates in the government, is foreshadowed by 
the obscuration of a third part of the sun, and a 
third part of the moon, and a third part of the stars, 
by an obliterating stroke that divested them of their 
power to give light during a third part of the day, 
and a third part of the night. The third part of the 
sun is the symbol of the emperor of the west, after 
the loss of a large share of the dominions that had 
belonged to his predecessors ; and the third part of 
the moon and of the stars, of the inferior officials of 
the western imperial government. Their loss of the 
power of giving light, represented the divestiture of 
Augustulus and his subordinate officers of their civil 
and military authority. And this had its fulfillment 
in the year 476. Neither Augustulus nor the great 
officers of his court, were put to death, but he being 
forced to resign the throne and take the station of a 
dependent, all who were associated with him in the 
government, were, by his abdication, deprived of their 
offices, and reduced to the rank of mere subjects. 

With the fall of Augustulus, the seventh head of 
the beast, the symbol of the imperial power fell, and 
gave place to the Gothic kingly sovereignties that 
had conquered the western empire ; and each grasp- 
ing the part that had fallen under its power, erected 
a kingdom for itself, in independence both of its 
associate monarchies, and of the eastern empire ' f a 

15 



338 THE FOUR GREEK KINGDOMS ABE EXTINCT. 

change of the greatest significance, and without any 
parallel in the revolutions which befell the empires 
that had preceded the Roman. On the overthrow 
of the Assyrian empire, instead of being divided into 
separate kingdoms under independent monarchs, it 
was added to the dominions of the conqueror. On 
the subversion also of the Babylonian empire, it was 
incorporated in that of the Medes and Persians. 
Theirs was in like manner appropriated by the 
Greeks to themselves ; and on the conquest of the 
vast territories of the Greeks by the Romans, instead 
of erecting new and independent kingdoms, they 
held the whole under their own despotic rule. But 
the subversion of the western Roman empire was not 
the work of a single people, but of a group of foreign 
nations, each acting independently in a great mea- 
sure of the others, and appropriating to itself what- 
ever domains it could seize and hold, and giving the 
sceptre into the hands of the chief to whom they 
already owed allegiance, and by whom they had 
been led to their conquests. 

And this momentous change, marked by the 
greatest peculiarities, and conspicuous as the orbs of 
heaven compared to ordinary events, was the divi- 
sion of the Roman empire into ten separate king- 
doms, predicted through the toes of Nebuchad- 
nezzar's image, and through the diadems on the 
horns of, the beast of the Apocalypse from the sea, 
ch. xiii. 1-5. The diademe are symbols of kingly 



THE TEN KINGDOMS ABE AT THE WEST. 330 

power. The disappearance of the diadems from the 
heads, denoted that the orders of rulers symbolized 
by the heads, had passed from existence, and their 
presence on the horns, indicated that the sovereignty 
had been grasped by the kings of whom the horns 
were the representatives. These events answer in the 
most exact and impressive manner to the symbols. 
To deny that they are the events contemplated by 
the prophecy, is in effect to impeach its truth. If 
an exact accordance of events of the greatest mo- 
ment, and the greatest notoriety, with a prediction, 
and their standing in the gaze of the whole civilized 
world for ages, is no proof that they are the events 
the prophecy foreshows, what can possibly have any 
claims to be considered as the verification of a pre- 
diction? The supposition of such a concurrence 
without a fulfillment, especially in a case in which 
thousands of millions of the most influential actors 
in the civilized world, and ten thousand times ten 
thousand millions of acts of the greatest significance 
and notoriety are concerned, is a self-contradiction 
too palpable to meet the assent of any who truly 
apprehend its meaning. 



340 DE. TREGELLES' DENIAL THAT THE TEN KINGS 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Dr. Tregelles' Denial that the Kings denoted by the ten Horns rose at 
the time of the Conquest of the Roman Empire by the Goths — The rise 
and career of the Power denoted by the eleventh Horn, demonstrates 
that the 1260 days are Symbols of an equal Number of Years — It is 
proved also by the Prophecy of the second Beast and the Image. 

That the kings foreshown in these prophecies, are 
the kings that rose contemporaneously with the con- 
quest of the western empire by the tribes that appro- 
priated its territory to themselves, is indeed denied 
by Dr. Tregelles and others, under the representation 
that writers who have attempted to identify the ten 
kingdoms, have fallen into errors, and that no means 
exist for a clear demonstration that ten rose into 
being at, or near the period of the fall of the imperial 
rule. He says : 

" The tenfold division of the Eoman empire (even if we had 
a right to exclude the eastern half), could never be definitely 
pointed out, whether in the early centuries or since. The lists 
differ exceedingly, and very frequently countries wholly discon- 
nected with the Eoman empire are introduced, simply because 
in later days they have been upholders of the popedom." — Be- 
marJcs on Daniel, p. 68. 

But the mistakes into which writers have fallen, 
generally from gross inattention to the prophecy, are 






ROSE AT THE CONQUEST OF THE WEST BY THE GOTHS. 341 

no proof that the kings denoted by the horns did not 
enter on their career, as the sovereignty passed from 
the line denoted by the last imperial head of the 
beast. It is not supposed that they all sprung into 
power at the moment when Odoacer, the chief of the 
Heruli, displaced Augustulus, and assumed the scep- 
tre of Rome. Most of them entered the empire in 
the early part of the fifth century, and had estab- 
lished themselves in France, Spain, northern Africa, 
and Italy, long before the fall of Augustulus. The 
Lombards, Heruli, and Ostrogoths had occupied 
Pannonia and Noricum, a considerable period before 
they invaded Italy. That there were ten hordes, or 
communities that invaded the western empire, estab- 
lished themselves in the possession of territory, and 
instituted or perpetuated a kingly rule for a consider- 
able time, is as indisputable as any of the events of 
that period. That several were soon to fall, was 
foreshown by the prophecy. That great changes 
subsequently took place by the encroachment of the 
tribes on one another, is no proof that the original 
number was not ten. That the western empire con- 
tinued under the dominion of a group of kings from 
that age onward, without any considerable exception 
of territory, is as indisputable as it is that it is now 
under the sway, with the sole exception of Switzer- 
land, of independent monarchs, and of lines generally 
that trace their lineage back through centuries. 
When a dynasty has fallen, as once in England, and 



342 THOSE KINGS HAVE ACTED THE PARTS 

five times in less than a century in Trance, it has not 
issued in the substitution of a republic for a mon- 
archy for more than a short period. The change of 
the line has not essentially altered the principle of 
the rule. 

And these kings have acted the parts ascribed to 
them in the prophecies of Daniel and John. Thus 
they and the governments of which they were sev- 
erally the heads, gave, and there is reason to believe, 
before the close of the seventh century, the saints of 
the Most High and the times and law into the hand 
of the power denoted by the eleventh horn: accre- 
dited the impious pretensions of that apostate 
church, and executed its behests in the persecution 
of the true worshipers. They have opened their 
mouths also in blasphemy against God, and blas- 
phemed his name, and his tabernacle, and them that 
dwell in heaven ; by assuming the right to legislate 
over his prerogatives, his word, and his church ; by 
representing the temples of idolatry as his taber- 
nacles, and exhibiting the saints that dwell in his 
presence, as entitled to worship and as accepting 
the homage that is addressed to them by men ; and 
finally, they have made war on the saints, and have 
overcome them. Among the kingdoms that now 
subsist, or that have subsisted in the western Roman 
empire, there is not one, the rulers of which did not 
perpetrate this blackest and most impious of crimes 
against both God and man ; and most of them have 



ASCRIBED TO THEM IN THE PROPHECIES. 343 

been the scenes of bloody and exterminating perse- 
cutions without very long intervals, for eight hun- 
dred, or a thousand years. There is not a principal 
city that has not been the scene of the martyrdom of 
God's witnesses. There is not a place of concourse 
that has not resounded with the shouts and execra- 
tions of their accusers and murderers, as they were 
dragged from their dwellings to be buried in dun- 
geons, or given to the flames. What must be their 
blindness who can shut their eyes to these indis- 
putable facts, and maintain that there is no evidence 
that these audacious persecutors, whom it is impos- 
sible that any others should exceed in atrocity, are 
the bloody kings whom the prophecy represents were 
to make war on the saints, and prevail against them. 
They succeeded in silencing the voice of dissent from 
their false doctrines and impious worship in Britain, 
France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Germany, for 
a long series of centuries. Is it probable they can 
ever prevail against them on a greater scale at a 
future period ; and especially if, as these writers 
hold, their work is to be consummated in the short 
space of three years and a half? If proofs so vast 
and extended through a thousand or twelve hundred 
years, are no evidence that they are the monsters 
that the prophecy contemplates, it is absurd to im- 
agine that any demonstration that could take place 
in a brief period, could identify their future succes- 
sors as the individuals that fulfill the vision. 



344: THE MINGLING OF CLAY WITH THE IKON DENOTES 

Dr. Tregelles attempts to draw a confirmation of 
his views from Daniel ii. : 

" From the vision of Daniel ii. and that of chapter vii. we 
may see that the ten kingdoms do not arise until a certain pro- 
cess of deterioration (the mixture of clay with iron) is com- 
plete ; and that these kingdoms, when all developed, have not 
any protracted course before them. Just as the sovereignty 
out of which they sprung, was secular, so were they of course 
also secular. Whatever have been the changes in the Roman 
earth, as yet we have not seen the definite tenfold division ; 
indeed had we seen it, we could have expected nothing other 
than the appearance of the last horn, and the judgment of the 
Son of Man at his coming." — P. 67. 

Dr. Tregelles overturns instead of supporting his 
construction by this appeal to Daniel. The iron of 
the legs and feet of the image, represented the mon- 
archs and nobility whose power was inherent, or 
inherited from their predecessors. The clay is inter- 
preted in the prophecy as denoting the seed of men, 
that is, the unnoble, the common people who were to 
be intermingled with those symbolized by the iron, 
but were not to cleave to them. Now Dr. Tregelles 
holds that when that intermingling of the clay with 
the iron in the structure of the governments of the 
ten kingdoms takes place, it will show that they have 
reached their last stage, and that the last horn, by 
which he means Antichrist, has appeared, and the 
advent of the Son of God arrived. But if the inter- 
mingling of the common people with the nobility in 



ADMISSION OF THE PEOPLE TO POLITICAL POWER. 345 

the structure of the government, is a signal that 
those great events have taken place, they must have 
taken place ages ago. The mingling of the people at 
large of a kingdom in the structure of the government, 
is manifestly the symbol of their taking a part in the 
creation of their rulers by the elective franchise. 
The nation that exercises that function, selects its 
rulers, and gives them the power by which they ex- 
ercise the government. This is indisputable, inas- 
much as there is no other form in which they can, as 
a people, have a part with the supreme rulers in the 
government. They cannot all, nor generally be offi- 
cials. There would then either be no subjects, or 
but a small minority, which has never yet been, nor 
ever can be the condition of a monarchy. If, then, 
as Dr. Tregelles represents, the admission of a people 
to the right which the mixture of the clay with the 
iron denotes, is a proof that the last three and a half 
years of this dispensation have come, that Antichrist 
has revealed himself, and that the Son of God has 
appeared in the clouds ; then those great events 
must already have occurred, and in ages long past. 
For Great Britain has had a representative govern- 
ment, in a large measure, for hundreds of years. 
France had a parliament or states general many cen- 
turies ago ; Spain has for ages had her cortes ; and 
within the last fifteen years France has extended the 
right of suffrage to all her male adults, and made it 
the basis of her imperial government. The new con- 

15* 



346 THE PREDICTIONS RESPECTING THE ELEVENTH 

stitution of Italy rests the monarchy of that kingdom 
on the same foundation ; and the right of representa- 
tion is conceded in some degree, it is believed, to a 
share of the population in every kingdom within the 
limits of the old western empire. Had Dr. Tregelles 
avowed the belief from these facts, that Antichrist 
has manifested himself, and the Son of God has come 
in power and great glory, he would scarcely have 
offered a more palpable contradiction to fact, than he 
has in denying that the western Roman empire has 
been divided into ten kingdoms according to the pre- 
dictions of those prophecies, and that the ten kings 
have acted the part for ages which the pen of inspira- 
tion ascribes to them. 

There has been an equal verification of the pre- 
diction Dan. vii. 8, 20-25, in the rise and career of 
the eleventh horn of the beast. That horn is the 
symbol of the pope in his two fold office of bishop 
and monarch. A century or two passed, after the 
kings had entered on their reign, before the pope 
made such advances in his arrogations of power as a 
prelate, and in the subjection of the clergy and peo- 
ple to his sway, that he was able to take that attitude 
of superiority and dictation toward the rulers of 
Italy, Gaul, and Germany, that led on to the aspira- 
tions, cabals, intrigues, and usurpations by which he 
at length won or constrained the concession to him 
of a territory, and assumed the title and insignia of 
a civil monarch as well as the head of the Roman 



HORN OF THE BEAST HAVE BEEN FULFILLED. 347 

church. Having reached that position by a long 
train of deceits, impieties, and violences, he then 
began in the most open and audacious manner to act 
the part ascribed to him in the prophecy ;— speaking 
great words against the Most High, usurping autho- 
rity over his laws, and persecuting and wearing out 
his saints. He blasphemed the Almighty by pro- 
claiming himself to be his vicegerent on the earth ; 
by arrogating power to rescind his laws ; to introduce 
new methods of redemption ; to install new interces- 
sors, and new objects of worship in heaven ; to 
license every species of sin; to disgrace and ob- 
struct every true belief, and every form of virtue ; 
and to crush by oppression and tortures, and sweep 
to the grave by fire and sword, all who refused sub- 
mission to his imperious will. And he pursued that 
course of antagonism to God, and tyranny to men, 
for eight or ten centuries ; never for an hour repress- 
ing his blasphemies, or pausing in his work . of tor- 
ture and slaughter, except when met by a recoil 
from the millions who were groaning under his mer- 
ciless sway. "What pencil can paint in colors that are 
just to the truth, the gigantic atrocities that have 
marked his career ! Who can count the many my- 
riads whom he consigned to promiscuous slaughter 
in the wars which he prompted on the Albigenses, 
the Waldenses, the Bohemians, the Huguenots and 
others ? Who can enumerate the multitudes whom 
he has driven into exile, torn on the rack, and burned 



34:8 THE PREDICTIONS RESPECTING THE SECOND BEAST 

at tlie stake ? "Who can sum up the agonies with 
which he has wrenched the hearts of the long train 
of generations that have dwelt under his rule ? "Who 
can estimate the millions on millions whom he has 
led down to the gates of eternal death ? It is mad- 
ness to deny that this arch wretch who has main- 
tained this war on God and his worshipers through 
such a series of ages, is the monster fiend drawn in 
the prophecy under the symbol of the little horn ! 
All his hideous features, all his haughty attitudes, all 
his dragon-voiced utterances, all his bloody deeds 
answer to the picture that is there given of him. If 
he is not the power denoted by the horn, it is vain 
to imagine that the prediction can ever have a fulfill- 
ment. No human being can possibly in his peculiar 
sphere, transcend him in wickedness. No short-lived 
torturer, like the Antichrist for whom Dr. Tregelles 
and his associates look, could approach him in the 
number of his victims or the misery with which he 
could wrench and rend them. All the believers that 
will be in life on the earth in the persecution that is 
yet to come, will probably not be a tithe of the mil- 
lions whom the pope in his war on the people of God 
has consigned to the grave. 

There has been a like verification of the prophecy 
of the papal power under the symbol of the second 
beast with two horns like a lamb, and the speech of 
a dragon, Eev. xiii. 11-18. Its horns represent his 
two fold power as a bishop and a king. He in its 



AND THE IMAGE HAVE BEEN VERIFIED. 349 

presence, exercises all the power in kind of the ten- 
horned beast. The power of the first beast was not 
the power of a civil and military sovereignty only ; 
but also of a blasphemer, and a persecutor of the 
saints. The papal sovereignty arrogated all those 
prerogatives and exercised contemporaneously with 
the first beast, a civil government, and blasphemed 
God, and persecuted his saints. But the most impor- 
tant act ascribed to him, is his prompting the people 
of the ten kingdoms by means of false miracles, to 
erect an image to the beast that had been wounded 
by a sword and revived : and his giving life unto the 
image, so that it could speak and persecute those 
who refused to worship it. As the beast was the 
symbol of that combination of rulers, of which the 
emperors denoted by the seventh head were the 
chiefs : so the image of that beast was not a literal 
statue, but an organization of ecclesiastics after the 
model of the civil government of the empire, em- 
bracing all the ranks of the clergy of the ten king- 
doms, and having the pope as its head. His giving 
life to the image and causing it to speak, was his 
infusing into that structure a power by which it 
became an active and influential agent, spake with 
an authoritative voice, and caused those who refused 
to honor it with the veneration and submission it de- 
manded, to be put to death. That this prediction 
had a fulfillment in the eighth, ninth and subsequent 
centuries, is as indisputable as any other fact in the 



350 THE PREDICTIONS RESPECTING THE SECOND BEAST 

annals of the papacy. The bishop of Rome was for 
near two centuries after the rise of the Gothic kings 
only the head of the hierarchy of his own Italian 
patriarchate. He was acknowledged as the succes- 
sor of Peter, and in rank the first bishop of the 
church ; and was consulted as of high authority on 
questions of doctrine and discipline; but his deci- 
sions were advisory only, not legislative and judicial; 
and became authoritative only by adoption and rati- 
fication by princes and councils. The bishops were 
elected by their clergy, and the metropolitans by 
their bishop ; and all questions between bishops, 
were determined by provincial or national councils. 

But after the erection of the papacy by Pepin and 
Charlemagne into a civil kingdom, in the eighth 
century, the popes began to aspire to an ecclesiasti- 
cal dominion over the other kingdoms. They re- 
presented their decrees as of universal authority ; they 
claimed the right of making all appointments to 
benefices. They arrogated the determination of all 
ecclesiastical questions ; and in order to give eifect 
to their pretences, procured the forgery of a great 
body of letters and documents in the name of earlier 
popes and princes, which exhibited them as exerting 
legislative and judicial authority over the whole 
church, and represented princes and prelates as 
acknowledging that jurisdiction ; and those false 
documents they inserted among the canons, and 
thereby constituted them a part of the ecclesiastical 



AND THE IMAGE HAVE BEEN VERIFIED. 351 

laws. By these atrocious means, the popes made 
rapid accessions to their power, and though meeting 
for a time a stern resistance from individuals and 
hierarchies, after a struggle of two or three centuries 
succeeded in their aim, and brought the whole church 
of the ten kingdoms into the most abject subjection 
to their despotic sway. They arrogated the appoint- 
ment to all offices. They assumed the determination 
of all causes. They usurped an absolute supremacy 
over all laws human and divine. They claimed that 
their decrees and judgments were of divine autho- 
rity. They extorted an oath of allegiance to them 
from all who held offices in the church. They as- 
serted a similar supremacy also over the monarchs 
and princes of the ten kingdoms, and affected to give 
them their crowns ; when refractory, released their 
subjects from their allegiance ; and when able, 
wrenched their sceptres from their hands. And 
finally, as the climax of these lying and .impious 
usurpations, they caused that as many as would not 
worship this image of the beast, by assenting to its 
arrogations and yielding to its will, as though it were 
divine — to be put to death. And it was in this 
sphere, not as the mere bishop of Home, but as the 
absolute and despotic head of the whole church, that 
it instigated and carried on its bloody persecutions 
in every part of the ten kingdoms from the time of 
Gregory VII. through the centuries that followed, 
and swept millions, who refused submission to its 



352 THE PREDICTIONS RESPECTING THE SECOND BEAST 

will, to the grave. He annals of the Roman Catho- 
lic church, and the civil history of the ten kingdoms, 
are in a great measure occupied for six or eight cen- 
turies with these monstrous usurpations and tyran- 
nies ; and it was the towering height to which they 
rose, and the horrible demoralization and misery to 
which they gave birth, that prompted the revolt of 
Zwingle, Luther, and the Reformers generally of the 
sixteenth centurv. It was against this image of the 
beast ; this lawless and bloody imperium in the 
church, by which Christ was thrust from his throne, 
his word was divested of its authority, and the pope 
was exalted to an absolute despotism over the whole 
domain of religion, and against this alone, that the 
battle was fought by the Protestants at the Reforma- 
tion ; and it was by extricating themselves from the 
thrall of this monster tyranny, that they reinstated 
themselves in the freedom of the sons of God. Their 
whole debate with the Catholics related to the ques- 
tion, Who is the law-giver of the church ? The Pro- 
testants held that God is alone its legislator, and his 
word the sole rule of its faith and worship. The 
Papists gave that place to the pope and his decrees. 
The fulfillment of this prophecy, is thus one of the 
most indubitable, one of the most conspicuous, and 
from the atrocity of the crimes that entered into its 
tragedy of lies, of false miracles, of blasphemies, and 
of blood, one of the most portentous that has taken 
place of the revelations made in Daniel and John. 



AND THE IMAGE HAVE BEEN FULFILLED. 353 

There is not one that transcends it in the singularity 
of the events foreshown ; in the vast combination of 
agents that united in giving it existence ; nor in the 
magnitude and awfulness of the results that have 
sprung from its agency. That it fills the place I 
have indicated, none will venture to deny, unless 
blinded by gross ignorance, or warped by invincible 
prejudice. 

I might allege additional proofs that the Roman 
civil, military, and religious power in the eastern 
empire is symbolized by the sixth horn of the goat ; 
and that the eleventh horn of the beast, Daniel vii. and 
the second beast, and the image, Rev. xiii. are sym- 
bols of the papal power in some of its shapes ; and 
that that power came into existence and entered on 
the career ascribed to it many ages ago, and thereby 
demonstrate still more amply that the time, times, 
and a half a time, the twelve hundred and sixty days, 
and the forty-two months which are given as the mea- 
sure of its agency, are used as symbols of a corres- 
ponding number of years ; but it is unnecessary to 
add to the evidence I have already alleged. "No 
certainty can be more ample than that the power de- 
noted by the eleventh horn of Daniel is the papacy, 
that it began its career some twelve centuries ago, 
and that it is rapidly advancing to the catastrophe 
in which its war on God and man is to meet its end. 



354: THE ERRORS OF THESE WRITERS IN RESPECT 



CHAPTEE XIX. 

The Errors of these "Writers in respect to the Division of the Roman 
Empire into the eastern and western — Their mistaken Notion that the 
four Kingdoms of the Greek Empire are to be revived. 

These writers have fallen into an important error 
in respect to the division of the Roman Empire into 
ten kingdoms ; maintaining not only that it has not 
yet taken place, but that it is to embrace the eastern 
or Greek empire, as well as the western or Roman. 
Dr. Tregelles says : 

" In Daniel ch. vii. we see that the whole of the Eornan earth 
is to be divided into ten kingdoms ; those ten being found in its 
whole extent, the east as well as the west. The four parts of 
Alexander's empire formed a considerable portion of the east- 
ern half of the Roman territory : and as we see here (ch. viii.) 
those four existent as kingdoms at the time of the end, it only 
follows that four kingdoms out of the ten will be identical with 
the parts into which the third empire was long ago divided. A 
horn springs out of one of those parts, it may be described in a 
general manner, as in ch. vii. as rising from one of the ten king- 
doms, or else in a much more definite way as in this chapter, 
in which we see even what part or direction of the Roman 
earth will give him his origin." — Remarks on Daniel, p. 82. 

Here is not only a sad absence of proof, but a 
yery unfortunate cluster of misapprehensions. He 



TO THE DIVISION OF THE EOMAN EMPIEE. 355 

exhibits the four kingdoms of Alexander's empire, as 
four of the ten kingdoms of the Roman empire fore- 
shown Daniel vii. 8. ~No misconception could be 
more inexcusable. The four kingdoms of Alex- 
ander's empire ceased as they were successively con- 
quered by the Romans, and their territory was 
incorporated in a mass in the Roman empire. 

The ten kingdoms of Daniel vii. did not come into 
existence until four to five hundred years after the 
overthrow of the last of the Greek kingdoms ; and 
they had their scene exclusively in the western 
empire, of which in the main, the Romans were mas- 
ters before they extended their sovereignty into Asia. 

Dr. Tregelles represents also that the four Greek 
kingdoms are to exist at the time of the end. The 
prophecy utters no intimation of that nature. What 
it teaches is, that in the latter time of those king- 
doms, when transgressors had accomplished their 
work, a king of fierce countenance, symbolized by the 
sixth horn of the goat, should stand up, and should 
destroy the mighty and the holy people, and should 
magnify himself against the Prince of princes. And 
it is that, the Roman, not the Greek power which it 
is foreshown is to continue to the end, ch. xi. 36-40. 
He asserts that the sixth horn that sprung from the 
head of the goat may be described in a general man- 
ner as in ch. vii. as rising from one of the ten king- 
doms whose kings are symbolized by the horns of the 
beast ! That is to offer a direct contradiction to the 



S56 THE ERRORS OF THESE WRITERS IN RESPECT 

prophecy. The sixth horn sprung, it is specifically 
affirmed, from the head of the goat, by pushing one 
of the four horns from its place. There is no intima- 
tion that a twelfth horn, as Dr. Tregelles' interpreta- 
tion implies, sprung up on the head of the beast, and 
displaced one of the preceding ten. What can be 
more manifest than that Dr. Tregelles, instead of 
framing his construction in conformity with the pro- 
phecy, employs himself in interpolating and modify- 
ing the prediction to bring it into harmony with his 
preconceived theory % 

Mr. B. TV. Newton presents the same views. He 
says : 

" The first king of Grecia has arisen and has fallen; his four 
successors also have reigned ; but they too, have passed away, 
and their kingdoms have vanished — without the king of the 
fierce countenance having appeared, of whom it is declared, 
that he shall arise in the latter time of their kingdom. Has, 
then, this prophecy been falsified? It has not. The eighth 
chapter throughout its whole course declares, that its burthen 
respects the time of the end when the transgressors shall have 
come to the full. . . . These four kingdoms, therefore, must oe 
revived. 

" We know from the preceding chapters that the whole Eo- 
man empire, and therefore that part of it within which those 
kingdoms fall, is to be revived. We know also that the eastern 
as well as the western branch is to be divided. All, therefore, 
as to this, that we learn additionally from the eighth chapter 
is, that four of these divisions will be the kingdoms which 
passed from Alexander's successors into the hands of Rome ; 
that is to say, Greece, Egypt, Syria, and the rest of the domin- 



TO THE DIVISION OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE. 357 

ions of Turkey." — Prospects of the Ten Kingdoms. 1864, pp. 
117, 118. 

" The legs of the image corresponding with the division of 
the Roman empire into eastern and western, would lead us to 
expect that five kingdoms will ultimately be found in the 
eastern, and five in the western part of the Roman dominions. 
The eighth chapter of Daniel places it beyond a doubt that 
Greece, Egypt, Syria reaching to the Euphrates, and the rest 
of Turkey both in Europe and Asia, will form four of the 
eastern kingdoms," — Prospects of the Ten Kingdoms. Ed. 1864, 
p. 50. 

Here is the same error as is held by Dr. Tregelles, 
in respect to the meaning of the expression, " In the 
latter time of their kingdom when the transgressors 
shall have come to the full ;" that is, shall, have reacl>- 
ed the acme of their impieties, and become ripe for 
destruction. Each treats it as though that time was 
not the time when the rulers and people of the four 
kingdoms had reached the climax of their iniquities, 
and were about to be smitten by the hand of avenging 
justice ; but a period two thousand years later, and as 
though the transgressors who had wrought the full 
measure of sin that they were to be permitted to per- 
petrate, were not the inhabitants of those kingdoms, 
but were transgressors of a different race or races, exist- 
ing in a distant age, and in a remote part of the world, 
who will have had no participation in the crimes of the 
rulers and people of the four kingdoms ! But what 
can be more false and preposterous ? The language 
of the prediction is, " in the latter time of their Icing- 



358 THE ERRORS OF THESE WRITERS IN RESPECT 

dom " ; not ages after their kingdom had vanished 
from existence : and " when the transgressors shall 
have filled the measure of their sins ;" that is, the 
transgressors of those kingdoms, and especially those 
of the Jews, who had apostatized from Jehovah, to 
idols — not transgressors of a different lineage, a dif- 
ferent country, and a different age, who had no con- 
nection whatever with the Greeks or Jews of that 
period. The sense which I have expressed is indu- 
bitably that of the passage. The construction ad- 
vanced by these writers, not only has nothing to 
support it, but it perverts what it professes to explain 
by the interpolation of a wholly foreign and false 
element ! "What an expedient to give a show of 
truth to their groundless theory ! 

Their version of the prophecy is confuted also by 
the prediction that immediately follows, that a king 
of fierce countenance should interpose, who should 
rise to great power, and should destroy among others, 
the people of the saints ; that is, the Jewish people ; 
an.d should stand up against the Prince of princes, 
that is the Messiah ; as this shows that the power 
denoted by that king was to conquer the Jewish 
nation, and to set itself up against the Son of God ; 
and therefore was to subsist and continue its agency 
through a long tract of ages ; for these predictions 
had their fulfillment in the conquest of Judea by the 
Romans, the destruction of Jerusalem and the tem- 
ple, the dispersion of those of the Jews that survived, 



TO THE DIVISION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 359 

throughout the empire ; and finally in the arrogation 
by that power of authority over Christ's kingdom, 
and attempt to subvert it by setting aside his ex- 
piation, and substituting a work of man in its place. 
And it is to continue that war on Christ till the close 
of the vision at the end of the twenty-three hundred 
evenings-mornings, which are representatives of 
twenty-three hundred years. 

There is not a hint in the prophecy that the four 
Greek kingdoms are to be revived. The pretence is as 
preposterous, as it would be to assume that Babylon, 
Persia, and the Greek empire in the form it bore 
under Alexander are to be revived ; or that the whole 
Roman history is to be acted over again. How can 
those four kingdoms be recalled into existence ? To 
reproduce them, the Greeks themselves must be re- 
summoned into life, and reinstalled in the sovereign- 
ty of Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. The organiza- 
tion of new governments in those countries ovei; their 
present populations, and by either their present 
rulers, or by sovereigns of a different lineage, would 
not be a revivification of the four Greek kingdoms. 
There is a government now existing in Egypt, in 
Syria, in Asia Minor, and in Greece. Are they the 
four Greek kingdoms into which Alexander's empire 
was divided ? ]STo one will be so rash as to affirm 
such a solecism. And if they are not, how could tho 
erection of new monarchies by races that are not 
Greeks, be a revival of Alexanders empire? 



360 THE ERRORS OF THESE WRITERS IN RESPECT 

Mr. Newton regards the legs of Nebuchadnezzar's 
image, as indicating the division of the Roman 
empire into two equal parts, and thence infers that 
at least four of the dynasties symbolized by the toes 
are to be in the eastern, and the others in the western 
empire. No misapprehension could involve the 
symbols of the prophecy in more inextricable confu- 
sion and contradiction to each other. In the postu- 
late on which he proceeds in that theory, he over- 
looks the fact that the office of the metals of the 
image is not to represent the territories over which 
the several dynasties reigned, but simply to symbol- 
ize the human beings who exercised the sovereignty 
of the empires. Thus he says : 

"As regards the four metals which composed this image, 
almost all expositors agree that they represent the successive 
empires of Ohaldea, Persia, Greece, and Rome. . . 

" If then the iron legs of the image denote the whole Roman 
empire, why do expositors, after admitting this, suddenly for- 
get their admission when they "begin to treat of the divided 
parts, and write as if half only of the Roman empire were re- 
presented? If a whole is to be divided, we must divide that 
whole. Kothing but error can ensue, if we divide only half. 
Yet this is the mistake that has been committed. The eastern 
half of the Roman empire has been forgotten." 

" If the terms of the vision had been adhered to, and the ten 
final kingdoms had been sought in the whole Roman Empire, 
the modern theory of interpretation could never have existed : 
for it is based upon the extraordinary fallacy that half of the 
Roman empire, is the Roman empire." — Prospects. Edition 
1864,^.14, 15, 16. 



TO THE DIVISION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 361 

He thus in the first place falls into the error of 
assuming that that which the iron represents, is the 
Roman empire or territory, instead of the rulers 
who were to hold its sovereignty, and exercise its 
government. His theory is accordingly wholly 
groundless, and in contradiction to truth. As the 
iron is not the symbol of territory, but only of 
supreme and subordinate rulers, the fact that it was 
distributed into two legs, is no proof whatever that the 
empire which they were to sway was also to be divided 
into two equal parts. This single consideration over- 
throws the theory he advances with so much assur- 
ance. 

In the next place, his assumption implies, that the 
division of the Roman empire into the eastern and 
western, was coeval with the origin of the empire 
itself. For as the legs of the image were separate 
from each other throughout their whole length ; if 
their separation implies and proves that the Roman 
empire was in like manner to be divided into two equal 
parts ; then it also proves that that separation sub- 
sisted from the beginning of the empire. But that 
is in contradiction to fact. The separation of the 
empire into the eastern and western did not take 
place until eleven centuries and a half, after the rise 
of the Roman power. Near seven centuries passed 
before the conquest of the Greek kingdom of Syria 
and Egypt was completed. 

In the third place, his assumption involves other 

16 



362 THE IMAGE LEGS NOT SYMBOLS OF DYNASTIES. 

consequences that are equally false and preposterous. 
Thus, if the legs of the image indicate a division of 
the Roman empire into two equal parts, then for a 
like reason the arms and shoulders attached to the 
breast should imply a division of the Median and 
Persian empire into two equal parts: and on the 
same ground, the thighs of the image also must be 
taken as symbols of a division of the Greek empire 
into two similar parts under different dynasties; 
while the unity of the belly, must represent with 
equal effect, that no such division was to exist ! On 
that principle the four legs also of the monster beast 
which represents the Roman power, would symbolize 
a fourfold division of the Horn an empire. !Nbt a 
glance does Mr. Newton appear to have cast at the 
self-confuting results to which his assumption thus 
leads. There is no more reason for assuming that the 
legs of the image denote a division of the empire 
into two parts, than there is that the legs and wings 
of the lion symbolized a division of the Babylonian 
empire into an equal number of kingdoms ; or that 
the legs of the bear, the leopard, the monster brute, 
or the ram and the goat indicate that the territories 
over which those whom they represented reigned, 
were to undergo a like division into separate domi- 
nions. The reason that legs were given to these 
symbols, was, not to foreshow that the territories 
which were their scene were to be distributed to a 
like number of sovereignties ; but was in order that 



THE IMAGE LEGS NOT SYMBOLS OF DYNASTIES. 3G3 

being perfect in organization and shape, according 
to their several natures, they might be suitable re- 
presentatives of the analogous combinations of 
human beings, whom it was their office to symbolize. 
Had the image been with but one leg it would have 
implied that the power it represented, was mutilated, 
and incapable of the acts that are ascribed to it. 
Had the ten-horned beast been without four legs, it 
would have carried a proof in its organization, that 
the power it denoted, could never exert the vast and 
resistless activities that are foreshown of it. Instead 
of such deviations from truth, which would have de- 
feated the object of the visions, the symbols were all 
perfect according to their several natures, and some 
of them were endowed with supernatural organs, as 
wings, in order that they might present a fit exempli- 
fication of the exact and full adaptation of those 
whom they represented, for the extraordinary agen- 
cies they were to exert. The view advanced by these 
writers is accordingly wholly groundless and unten- 
able. 

On the other hand, the construction which refers 
the ten kings symbolized by the toes of the image, 
and the horns of the beast to the western empire 
exclusively, is not only unembarrassed by objec- 
tions, but is sustained by the most unanswerable cer- 
tainties. 

The dragon of seven heads and ten horns, Rev. xii. 
1-4, and bearing diadems on the heads, was the sym- 



364 THE SEA BEAST STANDS FOR THE WESTEEN POWER. 

bol of the Roman power from its origin, down to the 
fall of the western empire : and all the lines of su- 
preme rulers which the heads symbolized, had their 
seats in the western Roman empire : and Home con- 
tinued to be the capital of the empire down to the 
separation of the west from the east, in A. D. 395 ; 
and from that time held its place as the capital of the 
west, till the fall of Augustulus, and the extinction 
of the imperial rule. The beast from the sea, Rev. 
xiii. 1-5, having seven heads and ten horns, and bear- 
ing diadems on the horns, represents the Roman power 
exclusively in the western empire from the fall of the 
imperial line to the coming of Christ. The horns 
denoting the ten kings who, having conquered the 
territory of the western empire, usurped each the 
government of the domain it had grasped ; and bore 
the diadem as the badge of its supremacy in its king- 
dom. This is clear, jlrst, from the consideration that 
as the eastern emperor did not lose his sceptre on the 
fall of the western dynasty, but continued to reign 
as independently as before, he cannot be symbolized 
by the seventh head of the beast, which had lost its 
diadem : as that would be inconsistent with the fact 
that he continued in possession of his sovereignty ; 
but must be held to have been still represented by 
the seventh diademed head of the dragon, which re- 
mained the symbol of the Roman imperial power in 
that part of the empire in which it still subsisted. 



THE TEN HOENED BEAST FROM THE SEA. 365 

And second, from the fact that ten horns actually 
rose in the western empire, and continued for a con- 
siderable time and acted the part that is foretold of 
them. Of this, as I have already shown, as ample 
proof exists as of any of the events of that period. 
And third, from the fact that the eleventh horn rose 
up among them a century or two after they came 
into power, and has sustained itself among them, 
and acted out the tragedy of fire and blood that is 
foreshown of it in the prophecy. There is not a fact 
in the history of the last thousand years of more 
indisputable certainty than this. And fourth, from 
the consideration that the ten horns of the scarlet 
beast from the abyss, Rev. xvii. 3-14, are without 
diadems, and obviously because they are not to be 
independent sovereigns, but are to give their power 
and strength to the beast in its last form, in which it 
is the symbol of the eighth king. For if the horns 
which bore the diadems on the emergence of the 
beast from the sea, Rev. xiii. 1-5, are not the sym- 
bols of the kings who have reigned during the last 
thirteen or fourteen hundred years, it is apparent 
that no such kings as those horns denote are ever to 
hold the sovereignty of the western Roman empire. 
As the kings that are to reign after the beast rises 
out of the abyss, ch. xvii. 8-14, are the last that are 
to reign, and they are not to wear diadems ; if those 
who preceded them are not the kings whom the dia- 



366 THE BEAST STANDS FOE THE WESTERN POWER. 

demed horns, ch. xiii. 1-5, represent, what can be 
more certain than that no such kings are ever to 
hold supreme power in the western empire ? 

The persuasion of these writers that a part of 
the kingdoms into which the Roman empire is di- 
vided, lie in its eastern division, is thus wholly 
mistaken. 



THEIR ERROR IN REGARD TO CHRIST'S ADVENT. 367 



CHAPTEK XX. 

Their Error in regard to the Time of Christ's Advent — The Translation 
of the Hundred Forty-Four Thousand— The Wise Virgins — The Man- 
child. 

Another subject on which they entertain notions 
that are groundless, and likely to betray those who 
embrace them, into expectations that are to prove 
delusive, and will recoil on them with a disastrous 
power, is the time of Christ's advent, and the trans- 
lation of the 144,000 sealed persons, Eev. vii. 1-8 ; 
and xiv. 1-5. I quote from Mr. Baxter : 

" Whenever Louis Napoleon shall have confirmed the seven 
years' covenant with the Jews, the point will then be settled 
that from the date of that event, there will only be seven years 
and two and a half months to elapse before the glorious descent 
of Christ upon the earth at the battle of Armageddon, to slay 
the impenitent, and introduce the millennium. 

u It might then at first sight, be thought that the resurrection 
and translation of the saints, which is to take place at Christ's 
advent, would not occur sooner than the termination of the 
same period of seven years and two and a half months, since 
we are told that it is not till ' the Lord himself descends from 
heaven that the dead in Christ shall rise first, and we which are 
alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the 
clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall ever be with the 
Lord,' (1 Thess. iv. 16.) It would, however, be an error thus 
to suppose the resurrection and rapture of the saints to occur at 



3G8 THEIR ERROR IN REGARD TO THE 

so distant a period after the date of the covenant ; inasmuch as 
they are clearly declared in the prophecies to take place rather 
more than two years after the covenant. 

" The advent of Christ is shown to occupy ahout five years 
in its accomplishment, and to be effected in two stages. He 
first comes from the highest heavens into the air, and then the 
raised and translated saints are immediately caught up to meet 
him, (1 Thess. iv. 17), and consequently the hosts of Satan, the 
prince of the power of the air, are cast down from the air into 
the earth, and proceed (after an interval) to carry on through 
the agency of Napoleon, the Antichrist, the final 3|- years' 
persecution against the unready Christians who have been left 
behind upon this globe (Rev. xii). Meanwhile, Christ, with his 
raised and translated saints remains invisibly in the air, in the 
pavilion cloud, until after that %% years' tribulation (Matt, 
xxiv. 29, 30), and then suddenly displays the sign of the Son of 
Man in the heavens, and openly reveals his bright glory and 
majesty to the astonished inhabitants of the world below. At 
this point he sends forth his angels to gather to him in the air, 
all the saints that are found on the earth, including the surviv- 
ing foolish virgins, and those who have been converted since 
the first translation, and he then ' raines a horrible tempest of 
fire and brimstone ' upon Antichrist's hosts and all the ungodly, 
but sparing some of the least hardened, especially among the 
Jews and heathen. This spared remnant constitutes the holy 
seed, or nucleus of the population of the earth during the sub- 
sequent millennium, and with descendants will compose ' the 
nations of them that are saved,' who will be governed during 
the thousand years by Christ and his glorified, raised, and trans- 
lated saints, these latter living principally in the heavenly Jeru- 
salem, and visiting the earth daily, in order to exercise rule 
over the successive generations of its mortal unglorified inhabi- 
tants." Pp. 283, 284. 

16* 



TRANSLATION OF THE LIVING SAINTS. 369 

" The diagram prefixed to this chapter shows the period of the 
ascension of the literal day man-child, or wise virgins, to be two 
years and from four to six weeks after the date of the covenant. 
This is demonstrated by deducing from the year-day fulfillment 
of Daniel and Revelation during 2595 years from 722-4 B. 0. to 
1871, A. D., what their future literal day fulfillment will be 
during 2595 days, that is, seven years and two and a half 
months from the date of Antichrist's approaching seven years' 
covenant with the Jews, until his destruction at Christ's descent 
at Armageddon." — P. 296. 

As I have already shown, that the chronology on 
which he proceeds in his theory of the 2595 years, is 
a mere fiction ; that the theory of a double fulfill- 
ment of the prophecies is equally false; that the 
notion of a covenant between Louis Napoleon and 
the Jews is idle and sacrilegious ; and that the pretext 
of determining the exact distance of Christ's coming, 
and other events from the date of that imaginary 
covenant, is a delusion ; it is not necessary that I 
should repeat the proofs that they are errors. With 
their overthrow as sheer interpolations and misrepre- 
sentations of the prophecies, the whole fabric of 
Mr. Baxter's eschatology falls to the ground. 

He runs into several other mistakes, which it is 
important should be understood. The first is the 
representation that two translations of saints are fore- 
shown in Rev. xiv. : 

u Two distinct translations or removals of living saints from 
the earth at Christ's coming, are plainly described in literal 



370 THEIR ERROR m REGARD TO THE 

day, Rev. xiv. ; the first being an earlier and smaller ingather 
ing than the second, and consisting of the 144,000 persons, called 
the first fruits, v. 4, who are caught up before the fall of Babylon 
and Antichrist's subsequent Z% years' persecution ; the second 
being composed of all the saints found on the earth after Anti- 
christ's Z% years' persecution, and who are called the har- 
vest." (Rev. xiv. 15 ; vii. 9.)— P. 297. 

I shall not now enter into the question whether the 
144,000 are to be translated or not ; nor if they are, 
whether it is to be before or after Christ comes in 
the clouds of heaven ; but simply point to the fact 
that Mr. Baxter gives no proof, that those who are to 
be the subjects of the harvest, are at the period when 
they are reaped, to be translated to the skies. There 
is nothing in the passage to sustain that construction. 
Their being harvested is like the gathering of ripened 
grain from a field, in order to their preservation and 
appropriation to the ends for which they are re- 
deemed; but whether they are to remain in the 
natural life for a time, or be immediately trans- 
formed from mortal to immortal, is not indicated. 
Moreover, if they are to be released from the sen- 
tence of death, and changed to immortal, it does not 
follow that they are forthwith to be transferred from 
this world to another. There is no authority for such 
a persuasion. 

He has no ground for his representation ; that 
Christ is to come and remove those whom he deno- 
minates the wise virgins, several years before the 



TKANSLATION OF THE LIVING SAINTS. 371 

great tribulation of the Israelites, when he is to inter- 
pose visibly for their deliverance. He says : " The 
general descriptions of Christ's second advent, inti- 
mate that he comes to remove the wise virgins at a 
time of comparative peace and prosperity ; and then 
comes after a short interval of awful tribulation, to 
gather up the remnant of saints, and to destroy Anti- 
christ and the unrepentant." — P. 200. And he 
refers to Matt. xxiv. 37, and Luke xvii. 28, as repre- 
senting the second advent as occurring at a period 
of general quietude and prosperity. 

There is no intimation, however, that the wise vir- 
gins are to be removed from the earth, either before 
Christ's coining and raising the holy dead, or after- 
wards. They are to be admitted to his kingdom at 
the marriage supper of the Lamb, which is imme- 
diately to follow the resurrection of the holy dead, 
and is to consist in their exaltation to the relations to 
Christ and stations in his kingdom, which they are to 
occupy in their glorified life. Matt. xxv. 1-12 ; Rev. 
xix. 5-9. But there is not a hint that they are then 
to be removed from the earth ; nor is that supposition 
consistent with the parable. If Christ and his risen 
saints are to withdraw from the earth, and pass into 
heaven, how are the unwise virgins to have access to 
the door in the skies, through which he is to enter 
the scene of the supper, and plead to be admitted 
among the guests ? They plainly are to remain on 
the earth, as Christ himself is. 



372 THE GREAT TRIBULATION. 

The great tribulation, moreover, foreshown Daniel 
xii. 1-3, and Matt. xxiv. 15-31, is a tribulation of the 
Israelites, not of Gentile believers, nor of the unbe- 
lieving generally. There is indeed to be a great 
tribulation of Gentile believers, as is impressively 
foreshown in the vision of the innumerable multitude 
of palm-bearers of all nations, Rev. vii. 9-1 7, who 
had come out of great tribulation, and washed their 
robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 
But the period of this Gentile tribulation will proba- 
bly be the same as that of the Israelites, as each is 
doubtless to be caused by the beast, the false pro- 
phet, and the dragon, who are to league together in 
war, on those who refuse submission to their impious 
will, and maintain allegiance to God. 

Most of the Israelites who will be likelv to return 
first to Palestine, reside in Europe. Who will ob- 
struct their migration and make war on them, unless 
it be the rulers of the ten kingdoms, and the monarch 
of Russia, who, as the head of the Greek Church, is 
symbolized by the dragon ? Besides, both tribula- 
tions are to precede Christ's coming and intervention 
for the deliverance of his people. There is also to be 
a season of great agitation and terror to the unsanc- 
tified of all nations ; but it is to be of a different 
nature from the tribulation of believers, and at a 
later time, as it is to be caused by the signals of his 
approach to judge and destroy them. 

Immediately after the tribulation of those days 



THE GREAT TRIBULATION. 373 

with which Israel is to be overwhelmed, Dan. xii. 
1-7, " shall the sun he darkened, and the moon shall 
not give her light, and the stars shall fall from 
heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be 
shaken ; and then shall appear the sign of the Son of 
Man in heaven. And then shall all the tribes of the 
earth mourn ; and they shall see the Son of Man coming 
in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." 
"Then shall be distress of nations and perplexity, 
men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking 
after those things which are coming on the earth," 
Luke xxi. 25-26 ; and Christ indicates that this is to 
precede the deliverance of his people, for he adds, 
" When these things begin to come to pass, then look 
up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption 
draweth nigh" v. 28. Mr. Baxter is wholly mis- 
taken, therefore, in representing that Christ is to come 
and translate those whom he denominates the wise 
virgins, who he holds are to be a vast host, before the 
great tribulation. They are not to be exempted from 
that trial : which has for its object the test of their 
fidelity, by which it shall be seen by all eyes that 
they are his true disciples and meet to be openly re- 
ceived and acknowledged as such, and admitted to 
his kingdom. 

That the unbelieving multitude will go on in 
thoughtlessness and presumption till the signals of 
Christ's coming startle them from their delusions, 
Math. xxiv. 37, does not imply that the people of God 



374 NOT TO BE TWO COMPANIES TRANSLATED. 

are not at that juncture to be overwhelmed with per- 
secution. So far from it, the persuasion that their 
condition is hopeless, that the powers that are mak- 
ing war on them are sure to prevail and extirpate 
them from the earth, will very probably be one of 
the false beliefs that will serve to lull the fears of 
the unbelieving, and prompt them to give themselves 
up to worldliness and revelry. 

He is equally without authority for his representa- 
tion that there are to be two companies of 144,000 
each, that are to be translated to the skies. He says : 

"It should be observed that the righteous dead, who are 
raised up at the first stage in Christ's coming, are entirely dis- 
tinct from the 144,000 who are then translated, because none of 
the sealed 144,000 will ever have undergone death. In the literal 
day fulfillment of the seals during the final 1840 days (or about 
five years), the 144,000 mentioned in Rev. vii. consist entirely 
of Jews, who are preserved and caught up in the second transla- 
tion after the three and a half years' great tribulation. Thus there 
are two separate companies of 144,000 translated saints; the 
one in Rev. xiv., consisting chiefly of Gentiles caught up in the 
first translation, and the other in Rev. vii., being composed ex- 
clusively of Jews caught up in the second translation." — P. 300. 

What ground has he for this representation ? Not 
a particle. It is a sheer figment. That the 144,000 
of ch. vii. are the same as the 144,000 of ch. xiv. is 
not simply indicated by their number, but is made 
indubitable by the identity of the name on their fore- 
heads. The 144,000, chapter vii., are said to be 



ERROR IN REGARD TO THE JEWS. 375 

sealed with the seal of God on their foreheads, and 
that seal is shown in ch. xiv. to be the name of God 
written on their brows. The inscription on each is 
the same, and its impression on them answers to the 
office of sealing, which was to mark and identify per- 
sons or things as belonging to him, whose name was 
stamped on them. That the persons sealed, ch. vii., 
were of the tribes of Israel, is no proof, as Mr. B. in- 
timates, that those whom they represent are Jeivs / 
that is, all of one tribe, instead of twelve. Instead, 
it proves that they are not ; inasmuch as the twelve 
tribes, if used as symbols of the descendants of Jacob, 
would undoubtedly symbolize themselves, — that is, 
each 12,000 denoting 12,000 of their own tribe ; and 
accordingly there would be eleven times as many 
sealed of the other tribes as there would of the tribe 
of Judah. But those sealed out of the twelve tribes 
are not used as symbols of themselves, but as repre- 
sentatives, on the ground of analogy, of bodies of 
Christian believers, precisely as the being sealed is a 
symbol of an effect that differs from itself; the in- 
scription of the name of God on their foreheads indi- 
cating that those whom the sealed represent are to be 
made to give as conspicuous and indubitable proof 
that they are the true children of God, as would be 
formed by the inscription by the finger of the Al- 
mighty, in characters of light, of his name on their 
foreheads. 
His views of the man-child, and of the relation of 



376 Errors in regard to the wise virgins. 

the man-child to the 144,000 sealed, is still more pre- 
posterous and revolting. He says : 

" The coming of Christ in the air, the resurrection of the 
sleeping saints, and translation of the 144,000 wise virgins (or 
man-child, Rev. xii. 5,) are abont two years and from four to 
six weeks after the Covenant. — Rev. xiv. 1-5 ; Thess. iv. 16. 

" This event is shown in many passages of Scripture to take 
place before the three and a half years* great tribulation, 
and the precise time of its occurrence is discovered by the 
chronological position of the rapture of the man-child, in the 
literal day fulfillment, being ascertained from its chronological 
position in the year-day fulfillment. The different visions 
of the seals, trumpets, and vials, etc., in Revelation, are fulfilled 
first, on the year day scale, within about 1872 years ; and sec- 
ondly, on the literal day scale, within about 1872 days ; and the 
second fulfillment is a miniature fac-simile of the first, the rela- 
tive order of events in each fulfillment being almost exactly the 
same. Thus as the year day of rapture of the man-child is evi- 
dently the ascension of Christ in A. D. 29-33, at the distance 
of 1838 to 1843 years "before the end of this dispensation in 
1871-2 ; therefore, the literal rapture of the man-child, which 
incontrovertibly denotes the ascension of the wise virgins, will 
be at the distance of from 1838 to 1843 days, that is, rather 
more than five years before the end. And as the end of this 
dispensation will be seven years and two and a half months, or 
2595 days after the date of the covenant, therefore the ascen- 
sion of the wise virgins will thus be from 752 to 757 days ; in 
other words (allowing an ample margin to avoid particularity as 
to a precise day), two years and from four to six weeks after the 
date of the covenant." — Pp. 77-78. 

After building such a tower.' ig structure out of 
materials fabricated wholly by his fancy — what a 



AND THE MANOHILD. 377 

dainty scrupulosity he exhibits in avoiding " particu- 
larity as to a precise day," and reserving an " ample 
margin " to himself of " two weeks," within which 
the sublime event he affects to foretell is to take 
place ! Who is there whom such a dream w T ould not 
discredit ? He not only proceeds on the unauthor- 
ized assumption that there is to be a covenant 
between Louis Napoleon and the Jews ; that the pe- 
riod of the covenant is to be seven years ; that there 
is to be a double fulfillment of the symbolic prophe- 
cies ; and that the year day fulfillment furnishes him 
with an infallible clue to the time and length of the 
literal day fulfillment which he anticipates ; — but he 
treats one set of symbols as representatives of another 
with which it has no connection whatever, and per- 
verts and caricatures them with a measure of iucon- 
sideration and audacity that was never transcended. 
Thus, he exhibits the wise virgins as the same as the 
144,000 sealed. What has he to justify this assump- 
tion ? Nothing whatever. The characteristics of the 
wise virgins, who were but live in number, are that 
they went forth to meet the bridegroom ; that they 
had oil in their lamps ; and that though they slum- 
bered immediately before the bridegroom approached, 
yet on hearing the announcement that he was coming 
they trimmed their lamps, and going out, joined the 
marriage train, and entered with the bridegroom to 
the supper. There is no intimation that extraordi- 
nary means had been employed to prepare them to 



378 ERRORS IN REGARD TO THE WISE VIRGINS. 

fill that office, and that they were admitted to the 
supper because they had before given peculiarly em- 
inent proofs of their attachment to Christ. On the 
other hand, it is expressly foreshown that the 144,000 
sealed are to receive the impress of the Almighty's 
name on their foreheads by an extraordinary agency ; 
that their sealing is to signify that they have given 
the most indubitable proof of their inflexible allegi- 
ance to God ; and that they are, on the ground of 
their truthfulness and spotlessness, to be distinguished 
from all that preceded them by the intimacy and 
grandeur of the relations to Christ to which they are 
to be exalted. "What can more emphatically show 
that they not only are not the same as the wise vir- 
gins, but are immeasurably to transcend them in their 
sphere in this life, as they are in the glory with which 
they are to be distinguished in Christ's kingdom on 
the earth ! 

But his confusion of the man-child, Rev. xil. 1-5, 
with Christ, is still more mistaken and revolting. In 
the first place, the vision of the man-child was pro- 
phetic of the future ; not historic of the past. Mr. 
Baxter's assumption that the man-child was Christ 
implies, therefore, that Christ was, or is, again to be- 
come incarnate, and to be exposed to be put to death 
by enemies, and then once more ascend to the 
throne of heaven ; and that implies that his redemp- 
tive work at his first incarnation was inadequate to 
the salvation of men, and needs to be supple- 



THE MANCHILD NOT CHEIST. 379 

raented by another humiliation, persecution, and 
death. For how could he any more ascend to 
heaven after a second incarnation, without passing 
through death and a resurrection, than he could at his 
first assumption of our nature ? Moreover, if Mr. Bax- 
ter's theory that the prophecies are to have a double 
fulfillment is legitimate, then the second incarnation, 
persecution, death, resurrection and ascension of 
Christ, which he implies is foreshown under the sym- 
bol of the man-child, is again to be repeated ; and 
bo, for aught that can be shown, in an endless series. 
Such is the portentous result to which Mr. Baxter's 
false construction would lead, were it legitimate. 
But though he sees nothing of this, it is but a speci- 
men of the misapprehensions and misrepresentations 
that pervade his views of the prophecies. The man- 
child was not the Son of God, but a human being, 
and the symbol of a human being ; and his being 
caught up to God and to his throne did not betoken 
a literal translation to the presence and throne of 
the Almighty, but was a symbol of the assumption 
of the place and prerogatives of God by the person 
denoted by the man-child, in much the same manner 
as the Man of Sin is to usurp the rights and place of 
God in his relations to men, and claim the homage 
that is due only to him. 

So much for the chief errors that are put forth by 
Mr. Baxter and others, cited by him, in the volume 
under notice. I might point out many other miscon- 



380 THE MANCHILD NOT CHEI8T. 

eeptions and misconstructions, that wrest and deface 
the prophecies ; but I have adduced sufficient proofs 
of the superficiality and untruthfulness of the system 
they maintain, and prefer to turn to the Scriptures 
and inquire what the great events are which they 
most surely reveal, as to precede and attend Christ's 
advent, and the establishment of his kingdom on the 
earth. 



THE FIFTH VIAL. 381 



CHAPTER XXI. 

The point to which the Fulfillment of the Prophecies has advanced— 
The Fifth and Sixth Vials — The Prophecies yet to be accomplished — 
The Sixth Seal symbolizes the Descent of the Powers denoted by the 
Wild Beast of Ten Horns to Hades — The Prediction of its return in a 
new form, and resumption of the Throne of the Western Roman Em- 
pire — The Renationalization of the Catholic Hierarchies — A fresh 
persecution of the true Worshipers. 

What, then, is the point which the fulfillment of 
the prophecies, especially of the Apocalypse, has 
reached ? What are the great events that are yet to 
take place before the coming of Christ ? And what 
are the peculiarities of the dispensation he is to in- 
stitute on his assuming the sceptre of the earth ? 

i. 

The fifth vial of the Apocalypse was poured, there 
is reason to believe, at the period of the revolution in 
France and several other of the ten kingdoms in 
1848. All the great features of that event corres- 
pond to the prediction. The vial fell " upon the 
seat of the beast." The movement in France, Italy, 
and Germany w T as directed against the old arbitrary 
Catholic monarchies, symbolized by the beast ; de- 
nying the validity of the despotic power which they 
claimed as inherited from their predecessors, and 



382 THE FIFTH VIAL. 

aiming to wrest it from them, and substitute repre- 
sentative governments in its place. "And his 
kingdom was full of darkness." 

This was eminently true of the nations that sud- 
denly, and without forethought, precipitated them- 
selves into that abyss of distraction and anarchy. 
After having driven several monarchs from their 
thrones, and forced others to grant constitutions that 
admitted their subjects to the elective franchise, and 
pledged to them prerogatives and privileges they had 
never before enjoyed; they failed to act with the 
harmony and energy that were necessary to secure 
those concessions; and weakening themselves by 
divisions, betrayed by traitors, and resisted by those 
in whose hands the supreme power was held, they 
became so bewildered and paralyzed, that the mon- 
archs and other chiefs who wielded the soldiery, 
easily baffled them in their struggles for emancipa 
tion, and reinstating themselves in the arbitrary 
power they had lost, soon repressed or crushed 
the multitude with a sterner sway than they had be- 
fore ventured to exercise. And this disappointment 
filled vast crowds in France, Italy, and Germany, 
with mortification, chagrin, and rage. " And they 
gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the 
'God of heaven, because of their pains and their sores, 
and repented not of their deeds." Rev. xvi. 10, 11. 
And this is the temper, in a large degree, of the 
population of those and the other Catholic kingdoms 



THE SIXTH VIAL. 3S3 

at the present day. They writhe under the despotic 
rule that is exercised over them, and kept in subordi- 
nation only by force, are ready whenever an opportu- 
nity presents itself, to spring upon their masters, and 
strike them from their thrones. Another shower 
from this vial may ere long rouse them to a more 
effective effort to gain their rights. 

The sixth vial has also ireen poured, and is still 
pouring on the great river Euphrates. Scarce a 
symbol of the Apocalypse has been more sadly mis- 
construed than this. Expositors, almost without an 
exception, have maintained that the Euphrates 
denotes the Turkish empire ; and thence have as- 
sumed that the drying up of the waters of the river 
symbolizes the decay of the Turkish power. This 
misconception is founded on the pretext that the 
waters of that river are employed, Isaiah viii. 7, 8, as 
a symbol of the army of the king of Assyria. But 
no error could be greater. That prophecy is not 
symbolic : it is conveyed exclusively through lan- 
guage, and its grammatical is its predictive sense. 
It is by a metaphor, not by a symbol, that the waterr 
of the river are declared to be the king of Assyria 
and all his glory, to indicate that the Assyrian 
monarch, with his armed host, was to sweep over 
Judea, like a flood from the Euphrates, that should 
submerge all its vales and plains, and strew thow 



384. THE SIXTH VIAL. 

with desolation. The use of a metaphor to exem- 
plify the resistless power of the Assyrian invader, is 
no ground for the assumption that under the sixth 
vial, the Euphrates is employed as a symbol of the 
Turkish power. 2So postulate could be more mis- 
taken and preposterous. How does the fact that the 
river in Isaiah is used by a metaphor to illustrate 
the power of Assyria, prove that in the Apocalypse 
it is employed as a symbol of Turkey ? Moreover, 
as the symbol of the vial is taken from the capture 
of Babylon by Cyrus, and is designed to indicate the 
analogous method by which the Babylon of the Apo- 
calypse is to be overthrown, the supposition that the 
Euphrates is the symbol of the Turkish power, im- 
plies that the decay of that power, is to be the occa- 
sion of the subversion of the Catholic hierarchies of 
the ten kingdoms of the western Roman empire ! 
Xo two things, however, can be more utterly discon- 
nected with each other. How is the fall of the 
Turkish empire to occasion the fall of Babylon the 
great ? Are kings from the east to invade the west- 
ern kingdoms and overturn their nationalized hierar- 
chies, as Cyrus by the diversion of the river from 
its channel, entered Babylon, and forcing his way 
into the palace, slaughtered the monarch and his 
courtiers ? Xobody can believe it. 

The Euphrates is the river on which ancient Babylon 
stood. As it passed through the centre of the city, Cyrus 
by turning its waters from their channel, marched his 



THE SIXTH VIAL. 385 

troops along its bed, and mounting the stairways from 
the water, and finding the gates at their head un- 
barred, entered the streets with little obstruction, 
and conquering the guards and putting the monarch 
and his attendants to the sword, became master of 
the city and empire. From this act the symbols of 
the vial are taken ; the Babylon which Cyrus con- 
quered, being the representative of the mystical 
Babylon of the Catholic Church : the waters of the 
river which were essential to the safety and support 
of the city, symbolizing the kindreds and nations that 
sustain an analogous relation to that apostate Baby- 
lon as the means of her subsistence and strength ; 
waters being expressly exhibited as the symbol of 
"peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues," 
in their relations to her as her subjects, ch. xvii. 15. 
The drying of the waters denotes the alienation of 
the Catholic multitude from her sway ; and the kings 
of the east who conquered Babylon, symbolize the 
leaders who are to withdraw the Catholic crowd from 
attachment and submission to her imperious rule. 
This is indubitably the meaning of the symbols. It 
lies on their face, and like the glow of a noonday sun 
on a landscape, presents all its objects in their true 
forms and relations to one another. The symbols 
and the event are an exact parallel to each other. 
Moreover, the truthfulness of this construction is 
verified by a vast, conspicuous, and active alienation 
of the Catholic population from the nationalized 

17 



386 THE SIXTH VIAL. 

hierarchies of the ten kingdoms, as they are united in 
the image of the beast in a single structure, with the 
pope as its head. This recoil from the pope and the 
vast organization of prelates, priests, and other offi- 
cials, of which he is the chief, that claim absolute 
dominion over the churches, and over the whole popu- 
lation, and demand on penalty of perdition, submis- 
sion to their imperious will — pervades in a great mea- 
sure, not only Rome and Italy, but France, Spain, 
Portugal, Belgium, and Germany. In Sardinia, 
Florence, Sicily, and Eome itself, where it is most 
fully developed, it is not a rejection of the Catholic 
religion, but rather a revulsion from the usurped and 
despotic dominion asserted over them by the pope and 
his train of hierarchies. This is in harmonv with 
the symbol. The water of the river continued to be 
water after it was turned from its channel, though it 
no longer gave security to Babylon, or ministered to 
its wants. So the alienated Catholics continue to be 
Catholics, though they no longer uphold the pope 
and his train of officials. 

This coldness, aversion, and hostility to the Catholic 
priesLhood, is to become, we may justly presume, far 
more general, and rise to greater intensity, and is to 
prepare the way for the denationalization and over- 
throw, at length, of the hierarchies ; as the drying of 
the Euphrates rendered ancient Babylon accessible 
to her besiegers, and led to her being conquered by 
Darius and Cyrus. That the vial has not yet been 



THE DESCENT OF THE BEAST TO HADES. 387 

fully poured, is manifest from the fact that the un- 
clean spirits like frogs that appeared immediately 
after the vial, are not yet gone forth from out of the 
mouth of the dragon, and out of the month of the 
beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, to 
gather the kings of the earth together to the battle 
of the great day of God Almighty. It is the loss of 
its hold on the faith of the people, and perhaps its 
dejection from its place as a nationalized body, 
that exciting alarm for its existence, is to prompt it, 
and its associate powers, the dragon and wild beast, 
to send forth its emissaries to gather the kings to- 
gether to intercept Christ from establishing his king- 
dom on the earth. 

01. 

Among the predicted events that are not remote, 
and that are to give birth to consequences of the 
greatest moment, the first undoubtedly is, that modi- 
fication of the sovereignties of the ten kingdoms 
which is indirectly signified by the implied descent 
of the wild beast into hades ; and directly by the spe- 
cific prediction of its ascent from that world, and 
reassumption of supreme power. Rev. xi. 7 ; xvii. 8. 
The beast ascends out of the abyss ; that is, hades, the 
world of the dead. This implies that it had undergone 
a syncope, or suspension for a period of its living 
power; and is a natural and striking symbol of 
their loss by the rulers whom the beast represents of 



388 THE DESCENT OF THE BEAST TO HADES. 

their authority, detrnsion from their thrones, and 
deprivation of their lives. 

That the abyss from which the wild beast is to 
ascend is the world of the dead, is shown by the 
repeated use of the term to denote that realm. Thus 
it is employed in that sense, Rom. x. 7 : " Say not in 
thy heart ; Who shall ascend into heaven : that is 
to bring down Christ : rf ris HarafirfGerai eis n)v 
afivGGov ; rovr eotiv XpKTtov en vexpoov ava- 
yayliVy or who shall descend into the abyss : that is, 
to bring up Christ from the dead." The abyss is thus 
indubitably the world of the dead, or scene where 
spirits who have departed from this life have their 
abode. It is a real place, therefore, and Christ at his 
death descended there ; for it was from among the 
dead that he returned to life. It is used accordingly. 
Acts ii. 31, as synonymous with hades, which is the 
usual name of the world into which the spirits of men 
pass at death. David being therefore a prophet, and 
knowing that God had sworn to him by an oath that 
in respect to the flesh Christ was to come of the fruit 
of his loins, to sit upon his throne ; having the gift 
of foresight, e\a\rf(?8 nepi rr)s avaaraaeoo? rou 
Xpi&rov ori ov HateXsicpSrj r) tpvxrj ocvrov eis 
adoVy ovde r) 6ap£, avrov side dia<p$opav — he 
said " in regard to Christ's resurrection, that his soul 
should not be left in hades, nor his flesh see corrup- 
tion." The abyss and hades are names, therefore, of 
the same place, to which the spirits of men pass 



HADES THE WORLD OF THE DEAD. 389 

when separated from the body by death. Hades is 
the term also employed in the Septuagint, Psalm 
xvi. 10, from which this passage was cited by the 
Apostle. The abyss of Romans x. 7 is, therefore, 
the name of identically the same world of the dead 
that is in other places denominated hades. It is 
used in that sense also in the Septuagint, Genesis 
xxxvii. 35 ; Ezekiel xxxii. 27, and other passages. 

This sense of abyss is confirmed by its use as the 
special name of that division of the invisible world, 
in which demons, or fallen spirits have their prison. 
Thus the many demons who had possessed the man 
of the region of the Gadarenes, on being expelled 
from him, implored Christ that he would not com- 
mand them, ei? rrjv af3v66ov a7te\$£iv y to go into 
the abyss, which implies that that abyss is to be the 
scene to which they are to be consigned forever 
when Christ comes and puts an end to their war 
against his kingdom on the earth. It is the name 
also of the invisible world in which Satan and his 
legions are to be shut and sealed during Christ's mil- 
lennial reign on the earth. " And the angel seized 
the dragon, the serpent who was of old, who is the 
Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 
and cast him sis rr/v a/3v6Gov, into the abyss, and 
shut and put a seal above him," Rev. xx. 3. It is 
accordingly called v. 1, r/ ^vXainj anrov, his prison. 

And finally, this is corroborated by the fact that 
when abyss is employed in the New Testament to 



390 HADES THE WORLD OF THE DEAD. 

denote a recess in the earthy it is defined as having its 
place in its depths, in contradistinction from the invisi- 
ble realms in which the spirits of the dead, and Satan 
and his legions have their abode. Thus under the fifth 
trumpet, the abyss of which the angel of the meteor 
had the key with which he opened its gates, that the 
smoke of the abyss might rise into the atmosphere, 
is defined as to &peap ttjz af3ii6o~ov, the pit of the 
abyss ; that is, a passage descending from the sur- 
face, and terminating in a deep chasm below ; as is 
shown by the emergence of the smoke from the abyss 
into the atmosphere ; and in so vast a volume as to 
fill the air and overcloud the sun, Rev. ix. 1-3. In 
like manner when in the Septuagint the word abyss 
is used to denote the deep of the ocean, or the ocean 
itself, as Gen. i. 2, and vii. 11, it is clear from the 
context that it denotes the ocean of our world ; not a 
vast deep or abyss in some other sphere. 

It is manifest, therefore, that the abyss into which 
the wild beast is to descend, when for a time it 
ceases to be on the earth, and from which it is sub- 
sequently to ascend, is the world of the dead ; not a 
deep or abyss on the earth. And from that it is 
manifest that the catastrophe by which it is to be 
hurled from its throne, is the symbol of a stroke by 
which the monarchs, magnates and others whom it 
represents, are to be struck from life. This is self- 
evident from the consideration that no human beings 
pass from this world into hades, except by death. It 



THE DEATH OF THE WILD BEAST LITERAL. 391 

would be a contradiction to the nature and office of 
that world, to suppose individuals of our race con- 
veyed there and made its tenants in their natural, 
corporeal life. In accordance with this wherever the 
usurping and apostate powers are represented as put 
to death, the death inflicted on them is a literal, not 
a spiritual or metaphorical death. Thus the delivery 
of the wild beast, Dan. vii. 9-11, to the burning 
flame, by which its life was destroyed and its body 
consumed, symbolizes the corporeal destruction of 
the human persons who are represented by the beast : 
the slaying of the armies of the beast at the battle 
of Armageddon, is to be a literal slaughter ; for the 
birds are to feed on them : and the burning of the 
persons who are to constitute Babylon the great at 
her destruction, is to be a literal burning. 

These great events are undoubtedly future : and 
the first in the train — the descent of the powers de- 
noted by the wild beast to hades, is, it is abundantly 
clear, that which is symbolized under the sixth seal by 
the earthquake ; the darkening of the sun and moon; 
the fall of stars ; the disruption and uprolling of 
vapors in the atmosphere ; and the flight of moun- 
tains and islands.* This group of symbols, has in- 

* Though aware from my earliest study of the Apocalypse that the 
ascent of the beast from the abyss was still future, and led on several 
occasions to refer to it as one of the most important events that is to pre- 
cede Christ's advent ; it was not till five or six year3 ago when I entered 
on the preparation of a volume not yet published, that I reached the 



392 THE DESCENT OF THE BEAST FUTTTBE. 

deed since 1789, been interpreted by many as Lav- 
ing met its fulfillment in the French revolution. It 
is, however, altogether mistaken. There was no such 

conclusion that the movement by which the precipitation of the beast 
to hades is to be wrought, is that of the political revolution symbolized 
by the earthquake of this seal. That dejection of the beast, not being 
like its return, directly foreshown, it was not unnatural to infer that it 
was to occur, like many other great events, without a formal symbol- 
ization of its cause. On a fresh analysis however of the symbols of the 
seal, it became apparent on the one hand, that they present no parallel 
to those of the first, fourth and fifth vials, notwithstanding a seeming 
similarity of the effects of the first vial to the agitation and disorder pro- 
duced by an earthquake ; and of the blackening of the heavenly orbs, 
to their obscuration by vapor and smoke, occasioned by the volcanic 
action which upheaves the ground; and therefore that they have no 
reference to the overthrow of the French monarchy in 1789 ; and on the 
other hand, that the political revolution symbolized by the earthquake 
will naturally precipitate the persons denoted by the beast to the realms 
of the dead. 

The following passage from the xxvii. chap, of the Coming and Eeign of 
Christ, published in 1858, presents the views I then entertained of the 
descent of the beast to hades, and its return and resumption of its 
throne : 

"A revolution of the civil governments of the ten kingdoms is to take 
place, probably at or near the close of the sixth vial, in which the old 
monarchies are to fall and be succeeded by new chiefs of perhaps an 
elective or military order, and they and the whole empire are to be 
under a common chief or emperor, as at the time of the vision, before 
the sovereignty passed from the heads to the horns." 

"The wild beast, chap. xiii. 1-10, represents the civil and military 
rulers of the Boman empire from its origin down to near the end of the 
period denoted by the forty-two months. The beast of chap. xvii. is the 
symbol also of the civil rulers of that empire, but at a later stage, and 
after the beast of the first period has died, as it were, and returned from 
hades to a new life, and in an altered form. The beast of chap. xiii. rose 
out of the sea. The beast of chap. xvii. is to ascend out of the abyss, 

17* 



THE DESCENT OF THE BEAST FUTURE, 393 

overthrow at that period, of the whole circle of mon- 
archies in the ten kingdoms, and reduction of all 
ranks and individuals to the same level ; as is sym- 
bolized in this vision. The only monarchy that fell 
by the agitation and uprising of the people, was that 
of France. The revolutions that were excited at 
near the same epoch in Italy and Holland, and sub- 
sequently in Switzerland, and parts of Germany, 
were the work, not of the population of those coun- 
tries, but of the conquering armies of France, and 
the arbitrary dictation of the ruling powers at Paris. 
Nor has there been any such general subversion of 
the governments of western Europe since the close 
of the French revolution. Though the fall of the 
French monarchy in 1848, and the temporary para- 
lysis of others, seemed like a descent into the world 
of the dead, that diminishing of vitality was not 
common to the whole circle of monarchies, and was 
soon followed by as firm an establishment nearly of 
the old dynasties, as they had enjoyed before. 

The events predicted here are of the greatest signi- 

hades, the invisible world, where the devil is to be cast and imprisoned, 
chap. xx. 3, and where the spirits of the unsanctified abide. This indi- 
cates that before assuming the form which it is to wear at the period to 
which chap. xvii. refers, it is to perish, and is to return to life in its last 
shape, as it were by a resurrection. The angel said of it accordingly, 
'the beast that thou sawest, was and is not, and shall ascend out of the 
abyss — hades — and go into perdition ;' and he represents its reappear- 
ance after its destruction, aa exciting the astonishment of the nations 
over which it is to rule." 



394: EVENTS ALREADY INDICATE ITS LIKELIHOOD. 

ficance. As the objects that are taken as symbols, 
comprise all the great constituents of our solar sys- 
tem, the earth, with its islands, mountains and air ; 
the sun, the moon, the stars, — their universal blight, 
and divestiture of power to perform their natural 
functions, or disappearance from the scene; indi- 
cate, that in like manner, the whole of the mon- 
archies and other forms of government in the western 
Roman empire are to be overturned, and the pop- 
ulation reduced to confusion and anarchy. The 
quaking of the earth, the obscuration of all the lumi- 
naries of heaven, the uprolling of the clouds and the 
flight of islands and mountains, bespeak a like over- 
throw and obliteration of the powers of the political 
world. Not one in the ten kingdoms will survive. 

Nor is this catastrophe, unexampled and stupen- 
dous as it is to be, incredible or unlikely in the judg- 
ment of many who reason from the great movements 
that are in progress among the nations. It, or a 
change much like it, is in fact anticipated by thous- 
ands and myriads of the leading actors in the politics 
of Europe, and observers of the direction in which 
the principles and passions that give them their hue 
are tending. 

There is not a government in western Europe 
that is not liable to be overthrown, and suddenly, 
by a popular movement. The whole group of 
dynasties rests in a measure, on a volcano, that may 
at any crisis explode, and open a gulf that will swal- 



EVENTS INDICATE IT AS NOT REMOTE. 395 

low them up. When, however, that is to take place 
no one can foresee. Powerful agencies are at work 
to retard, and if possible intercept it ; but unexpect- 
ed causes may precipitate it at a moment when it is 
least looked for. 

The ascent of the beast from the abyss does not 
imply that the combination of human agents .whom 
it symbolizes, is to be the same throughout, or in 
any degree, as those whom the beast represented at 
the moment of its descent into hades. They will 
doubtless be not simply in a large measure, but 
absolutely, different persons ; and far more fierce, 
bloody, and impious than their predecessors. Its 
truculence is shown by its scarlet color, and its im- 
piousness by its being covered with names of blas- 
phemy. The blasphemous epithets of the beast that 
preceded it, chap. xiii. 1, were confined to its heads. 
The vision of this chap. xvii. 3, thus foreshoAvs that the 
whole body of the officials whom the monster sym- 
bolizes, as well as the supreme rulers, are to arrogate 
the rights of the Almighty, and traduce his name, 
his sanctuary, and the saints who dwell in his pre- 
sence in heaven. 

The civil and military organization represented by 
the beast, as it ascends from the abyss, is to differ 
essentially from that of the empire under the beast 
before its descent into hades. Ten kings are still to 
reign ; but in place of absolute sovereigns, they are 
to give their power and strength to an imperial chief, 



396 EVENTS THAT ARE TO FOLLOW 

who, from the supremacy to which he is to be exalted, 
is called the beast itself ; the whole sovereignty being 
lodged in his hands, and the kings being his subordi- 
nates and instruments. This is doubtless the reason that 
no diadems were seen on the horns. That no crown 
was seen on the brow of the imperial chief, doubtless 
was that he is to claim to be God : God never ap- 
pearing crowned, and because of its inconsistence 
with his self-existence and independence. Crowns 
are given only as rewards, and are badges, therefore, 
of a derived authority. Jehovah's office and author- 
ity are underived. 

Whether the kings are to give their power and 
strength to the imperial chief from constraint, because 
he has conquered their territories, or voluntarily, be- 
cause they need his concurrence and aid to keep their 
subjects in submission, is left in uncertainty. Both 
may have a place in the reasons that are to prompt 
them to take the attitude of subordinates and depend- 
ants. Their surrender of their sovereignty to him 
bespeaks an overpowering motive, whether it is to 
spring from the instability of their thrones, or from 
his all-grasping and resistless power. 

The first function of the beast after its emergence 
from hades, is its bearing the woman named Myste- 
ry, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and 
abominations of the earth, Rev. xvii. 3-6. Her seat 
on him indicates that she is nationalized and acting 
in conjunction with the imperial chief, whom the 



the beast's ekttjen. 397 

beast denotes, as his instrument; while he, it is ap- 
parent from ch. xi. 7, is to be the great agent in 
shedding, at her beck, the blood of the saints with 
which she is to become drunk. The woman is the 
symbol of the Catholic hierarchies, united in a single 
structure under the pope, as symbolized by the image 
modelled after the beast under its seventh head. She 
is to be nationalized, fostered, and armed with power 
to carry her aims into effect, as being just what she 
is — Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of har- 
lots and abominations of the earth ; — not as a profli- 
gate who is softened to penitence, and reformed ; but 
with all her infuriate passions raised to greater inten- 
sity than ever before, eager to win the crowd to 
drink of her execrable cup, and burning to steep her 
lips in the blood of those who refuse to yield to her 
sorceries. 

The crowd, whose names are not written in the 
Book of Life, are to contemplate the beast on its 
emergence from hades, in its new form, with wonder 
and astonishment. They are to be aware that the 
power which it denotes had existed for a long series 
of ages before. They are to know that there was a 
time when it was not ; and when like the dead who 
have passed into the invisible world, it was regarded 
as struck forever from existence here ; and yet on its 
reappearance they are to see, with amazement at the 
unexpectedness and singularity of the event, that it 
is the same sovereign power as had before reigned 



398 THE CATHOLIC HIERARCHY NATIONALIZED. 

over tlie empire, and been represented by the beast 
that had gone down to. hades. 

All these characteristics of the beast, the woman, 
and the crowd that is to contemplate them with ad- 
miration, are depicted ch. xvii. 1-10, and in the fol- 
lowing verses : — " The beast that was and is not, even 
he is the eighth [king,] (not head, as many writers 
imagine — the noun with which eighth agrees, being 
BaffiXsvz, king, not Kscpalrj, head, which is femi- 
nine), and is of the seven ;" that is, of the same order 
as the absolute sovereigns of the whole empire, who 
were the rulers of previous ages symbolized by the seven 
heads of this beast. " And he goeth into perdition." 
Instead of perpetuating his power, and transmitting it 
to a long line of successors, he is to perish in the war 
he is to wage, along with his vassal kings, on the Lamb. 

It is apparent from this delineation of the beast 
and the woman, that on the rise of the imperial mon- 
arch, symbolized by the beast, from hades, the Roman 
Catholic hierarchy is to be nationalized throughout 
the ten kingdoms. This is shown by her seat on the 
beast. She is to be sustained by it in the position in 
which she is to exert the acts ascribed to her. It is 
clear also from her cup and her intoxication with blood, 
that an attempt is immediately to be made by her to 
allure the whole population of the empire to partake 
of her sorceries and idolatries : and that on meeting with 
dissent and resistance, a bloody and remorseless per- 
secution is to be instituted, to drive the reluctant into 



A BLOODY PERSECUTION IS TO RAGE. 399 

submission, or else to exterminate them by the sword. 
That implies that the Protestant establishments of 
Great Britain, France, and other parts of the ten 
kingdoms are to be denationalized, and all other 
faiths, rites, and forms of worship beside the Catho- 
lic proscribed and treated as a crime against the 
Church and State. 

And this persecution by the Papacy will be the 
natural consequence of her restoration to power. It 
will be but the resumption of the ambitious schemes 
which she had often endeavored to carry into effect 
before. She will not have relinquished her pretext 
that she is the vicegerent of God, — she will not have 
abandoned any of her arrogations of the right to dic- 
tate the faith and worship of men. Her long ex- 
perience of the inefflcacy of persecution to con- 
vert her dissenting subjects to her creed, will not have 
lessened her belief in its rightfulness or utility ; nor 
diminished her delight in torturing and slaughtering 
the unoffending and holy. Her iron heart will not 
have been softened to pity, nor touched with horror 
at the barbarities to which she has for ages been ad- 
dicted. Her principles will remain as false, her am- 
bition as boundless, and her rage against God and 
his people as infuriate as ever ; and she will act them 
out with an eagerness, and on a scale proportioned 
to the flush of hope with which the unexpected re- 
covery of her lost power will inspire her. 

It will be equally natural and certain that the true 



400 FAITHFUL WITNESSES AKE TO RISE. 

people of God will meet this attempt of the Church 
and State to force them into apostacy, with a prompt 
and unfaltering resistance, and will assert and declare 
the rights of God, on the one hand, which the perse- 
cutors will claim have become theirs; and on the 
other, will expose and denounce the false principles, 
the execrable superstitions, and the impious idolatries 
of the apostate church, with a truthfulness, fidelity, 
and power, that will be suited to the exigency ; and 
will be ready to lay down their lives, rather than 
swerve from their allegiance to God. He will not 
leave his children to apostatize from him. He will 
not allow his truth to fall unproclaimed and unvindi- 
cated. He will raise up witnesses like the martyrs 
of former ages in fearlessness and steadfastness ; he 
will send forth teachers and leaders like Moses, like 
Elijah, and like Paul, whose spirit, whose wisdom, 
and whose courage will fit them for the crisis, and 
enable them to vindicate and glorify his name, and 
abash and confound their enemies. 

The certainty that the events foreshown under this 
seal are still 'future is of the greatest importance, in re- 
spect to the question, whether Louis Napoleon fills the 
office, and has the destiny which they ascribe to him, 
who regard him as symbolized by the seventh head 
of the beast, and as to become the great persecutor 
of the church, and the Antichrist. As he, as the Em- 
peror of France, is a horn of the beast, if he continues 
in life and power until the great moment arrives in 






THE BEAST IS TO PERISH. 401 

which the seal is to receive its fulfillment, he will of 
necessity go down with all the other monarchs and mag- 
nates of the ten kingdoms, to hades ; and if once 
lodged there, cannot return to seize again the sceptre 
of France, bring the other kingdoms into subservience 
to himself, and act the part of the last persecutor, and 
•of Antichrist. What more effective confutation of 
the preposterous notion that he is to fill that office can 
be conceived than is thus furnished by this vision ? 
Whatever else may happen, he is most certainly to be 
swept from the scene either before, or at the descent 
to the abyss of the powers denoted by the beast. 
However much he may accomplish ere his doom 
comes, he is to be precluded from all the offices 
and agencies in the ten kingdoms that are to follow 
the rise of the new-modeled beast from the abyss. 
Should he go on in a career of aggrandizement for 
twenty years ; should he extend the domain of France 
to the Rhine ; should he gain by policy or power a 
determining influence over Spain and Portugal ; 
should he hold Italy in a position of subjection ; 
should a revolution take place in Great Britain that 
should weaken her to such a degree as to compel her 
at his beck to nationalize the Roman Catholic Church ; 
he yet would achieve nothing that would constitute 
him the great agent who is to be the persecutor and 
Antichrist, after the fall of the old and the rise of 
the new dynasties. But I shall recur to this subject 
in a later chapter. 



4:02 LOUIS NAPOLEON IS NOT ANTICHRIST. 

The truth of the construction I have placed on the 
vision, the certainty that it has not yet had its ful- 
fillment, and the greatness and rnomentousness of the 
events that are to spring from its accomplishment, 
will become more and more apparent as I advance 
in the consideration of the prophecies that are to have 
their verification after the fulfillment of the sixth seal 
has taken place. 



POINTS TO BE DEBATED BY THE WITNESSES. 403 



CHAPTER XXII. 

The questions to be debated between the Witnesses and the Imperial 
Chief, the Kings, and the Catholic Hierarchy, that are to rise to 
power at the ascent of the wild beast from the abyss, and persecute 
them— Great changes to be wrought in the views of believers and 
others, in respect to the nationalization of Churches — The death of 
the Witnesses : their resurrection and ascension to Heaven — The effect 
of these events on the persecutors. 

This fearful strife, these gigantic struggles, of the 
two parties, are accordingly distinctly foreshown in 
other passages, and intimations given of the great 
question that is to be the subject of the conflict. It 
is to be ; not whether the Scriptures are a divine 
revelation : not whether men owe a homage to the 
Creator : not whether subjects are bound to render 
obedience to rulers in their proper sphere : but the 
far higher question ; "Who is God ? Who is the right- 
ful law -giver and ruler of the church? Jehovah? 
The Lord Jesus Christ who has all power in heaven 
and on earth ? Or the imperial chief of the ten king- 
doms, and the Roman Catholic pope and heirarchy ? 
For the arrogation of authority over God's worship- 
ers, and over his laws by the civil rulers and Cath- 
olic hierarchy, implies that their prerogatives in that 
sphere are higher than God's — that they have a right 



404: THE QCESTIONS DEBATED BETWEEN 

to dictate the faith and worship of those of his crea- 
tures who are their subjects ; to set aside his appoint- 
ments, and institute a false method of redemption, 
and a false worship in place of his ; and to force 
those under their power, to yield submission to their 
will ; or else to punish their refusal by torture and 
death. If God is the sole law-giver of the church ; 
if his rights and authority are supreme, and independ- 
ent of the concurrence of civil rulers, and ecclesi- 
astical officials ; then when rulers and ecclesiastics 
assume the right of legislating over his laws, and 
his creatures in their immediate relations to him ; to 
set aside his appointments, and dictate a faith and 
a worship that have their ground solely in their will ; 
and enforce them by the greatest and most fatal 
penalties that are within their reach ; they plainly 
arrogate what belongs exclusively to the Most High. 
They assume, in fact, that he has no rights, no title to 
homage, except by their sufferance. And that as- 
sumption of his place and prerogatives will lie at the 
foundation of the nationalization, or legalization of 
the Catholic hierarchy, at the crisis to which 
Rev. xvii. refers ; and of all the measures which the 
civil rulers and the Catholic powers will take to force 
their subjects to submit to their sway. It is the 
postulate that is the basis of all the church national- 
ization of the past and of the present time ; whether 
it be Catholic, Greek, or Protestant. In attempting 
to dictate the faith and worship of their subjects, the 



THE WITNESSES AND THEIR PERSECUTORS. 405 

rulers assume that their subjects owe them allegiance 
in the sphere of religion ; that they have dominion 
over the consciences and the religious obligations of 
those under their rule : and that disobedience to their 
dictates, is a crime of as great enormity, as apos- 
tasy from God, and punishable with the same great 
and lasting penalty. 

This question, therefore, it is intuitively certain, 
will be raised and debated with the greatest earnest- 
ness and energy, when the Catholic church is re- 
nationalized by the imperial chief and the kings of 
the ten kingdoms, and attempts by tricks and arti- 
fices, and tortures and death, to drive dissentients into 
submission to her will, or to exterminate them from 
the earth. There will be no ground but God's ex- 
clusive right to legislate over religion, appoint the 
method of redemption, and enjoin the faith and wor- 
ship of men, on which his true people can justify 
themselves in yielding implicit obedience to him, and 
rejecting with execration and horror the false methods 
of salvation, the false doctrines, and the idolatrous 
worship, invented and enforced by the Catholic 
powers. If they admit that civil rulers and nation- 
alized hierarchies have a right to determine what 
the faith and worship of their subjects shall be ; and 
punish resistance to their will by the penalties which 
God annexes to the greatest crimes that human 
beings commit against him : they can have no 
just reason for their repulsion of the system that is 



406 THE VEHEMENT STRUGGLES 

enforced on them. Their concession of the rights the 
persecuting powers are to arrogate, would be a con- 
fession of their guilt in refusing obedience to them ; 
and an acknowledgment of the justice of the doom 
to which their rebellion is to consign them. 

This question will therefore become invested at 
that crisis, with the highest significance ; will fill the 
whole sphere of vision, and will be debated with the 
utmost fullness and vehemence. This is shown bj 
the prophecy, ch. xi. of this great contest ; in which 
its nature is more largely unfolded. They who are 
then to maintain their allegiance to God, and be mar- 
tyred for their fidelity, are denominated witnesses ; 
and persons who prophecy ; that is, proclaim and 
verify the revelations which God has made on the 
one hand, respecting his rights, his will, the mea- 
sures he has instituted for the salvation of men, and 
the faith and worship he enjoins; and on the other, 
respecting the rise of identically such persecuting 
civil rulers, and prelates, as are assailing them ; the 
guilt of their pride, their apostasy, and their malice ; 
and the doom to which his justice consigns them. 
It is to be for the word of God, and for the testimony 
of Jesus, like the prophet, Eev. i. 9., that they are 
to be arraigned ; and it is to be for their inflexible 
adherence to that word and testimony, and rejection 
of the impious claims of their persecutors, that they 
are to be condemned and put to death. 

Let us endeavor to conceive of the struggle that 



TO WHICH IT WILL GIVE BIRTH. 4.07 

will naturally take place in Great Britain, for ex- 
ample, when the Protestant establishments are struck 
to the ground ; the Catholic hierarchy is reinstated 
in unrestricted authority, and armed with power to 
give effect to its decrees ; and in its pride and 
audacity in evil, undertakes to prohibit all freedom 
of faith and worship, and demand that all churches 
and individuals shall enter her communion, partake 
of her rites, and offer her idolatrous worship. And 
we shall see that a strife of intellect and of feeling, 
will arise, that has no parallel in the struggles and 
revolutions of past ages. It may ipdeed be thought 
improbable and impossible that such a change can 
take place, either in the policy of the rulers, or the 
principles and inclinations of the people. So far, 
however, from being impossible or improbable, there 
are causes already in existence, that if combined 
under favorable circumstances, will naturally give 
birth to that result. There is already a large in- 
fusion of Catholics in the population of England and 
Scotland, who are in a measure organized, and ready 
to act in concert at any important crisis. A very 
considerable portion of the clergy of the establish- 
ments, and a large part of the members of the state 
churches, are deeply imbued with the superstition 
and faith of popery, and would in an exigency, like that 
of a change of the national church from Protestant, 
to Catholic, feel little hesitation in joining the latter. 
The majority of the lower orders have little interest 



408 THE CATHOLIC HIEKAKCHY 

in religion, and would be likely to give their adher- 
ence to that which is most kindred to their igno- 
rance, their superstition, and their lawlessness. 
Whether the revolution is to spring spontaneously 
from causes that lie in the British mind, or is to be 
the work, in a measure, of influences from without, 
it may naturally take a shape that will carry the 
majority of the nation to the side of Roman Catho- 
licism. If the government be paralyzed in a degree 
by disasters in war, or embarrassed and endangered 
by a foreign Catholic power ; how possible it is that 
that power would demand as a condition of the con- 
tinuance of the royal line on the throne, and the pre- 
servation of the aristocracy, the adoption of the 
Catholic as the state religion ; and that that con- 
dition will be acceded to by the monarch and nobles 
for the sake of preserving the throne and the nomi- 
nal independence of the kingdom ? If, as is far more 
probable, the monarchy and aristocracy are endan- 
gered by a domestic revolution ; how possible it is 
that the proffer of universal suffrage on the one side, 
and of Catholic nationalization on the other, will 
combine such a multitude as to carry the scale in 
favor of Catholic supremacy ? That there will be a 
numerous and powerful party on the side of the 
Catholics embracing the universities, the cathedrals, 
all Puseyites and semi-Romanists ; and a large part of 
the merely worldly officials in the church, a leading 
share of the aristocracy, and a great body of the middle 



IS T0 RISE TO POWER. 409 

and lower ranks, no one can doubt ; and if to that 
be added the weight of a foreign power, on whose 
will the continuance of the monarch and nobility 
should be in a measure dependent, victory would 
naturally declare on the side of the Catholics. 

While this great question is in determination, and 
still more after the Catholics have regained their lost 
inheritance of universities, cathedrals, churches, and 
bequests of every description, and reentered on the 
work of crushing the nation into submission to its 
behests, a contest of the most impassioned vehemence 
will naturally arise in respect to the principles on 
which the persecutors proceed ; and in which their 
false doctrines and bloody purposes are to be repelled. 
It is not in human nature that it should be other- 
wise. There will be many apostates from the 
ranks of those who had professed to be Protestants ; 
there will be many cowards : there will be a 
still greater number who will care little whether 
the persecuted or the persecutors are in the right. 
But there will be not a few who will not cower to 
the enemy, and sacrifice conscience, truth, and God's 
favor, and brave eternal death, to escape the momen- 
tary rage and malice of the foe whom they know the 
Almighty himself is quickly to confound and dash 
to perdition. At his bidding thousands and thou- 
sands will spring to their feet, like the dead from the 
sepulchre at the summons of the last trumpet, and 
take the attitude and fill the office of witnesses of his 



410 GREAT CHANGES ARE TO TAKE PLACE 

word and of the testimony of Jesus. A multitude of 
books and essays, it may be presumed, will be pub- 
lished, thousands of discourses will be uttered; 
myriads of harangues, arguments, and appeals be 
employed to win those who wayer, or repress the 
bold and unyielding. And the contest will go on, 
doubtless for a considerable period. A revolution 
so fundamental and far-reaching, is not to be the 
work of a few days nor a few seasons. No greater 
reversal ever took place in the views of a body of 
men, than is to be wrought in those who become the 
witnesses of Jesus at that crisis, and lay down their 
lives rather than swerve from fidelity to him. There 
probably is not at this moment a solitary individual 
in Great Britain, who is prepared to fill the office of 
a witness and martyr for Christ, as it is to be filled 
by those who are at that juncture to yield up their 
lives for his sake. Most certainly the members of 
the establishments generally, and the great body of 
those who dissent, or are without settled opinions, 
have not the remotest suspicion that the great ques- 
tion that is to be at issue at that crisis,, is to be — Who 
is the Supreme ; the Almighty, or the civil and 
Catholic rulers ? Who has the right of legislating 
over the conscience ? Who has the prerogative of 
prescribing faiths and worships ? To whom does it 
belong to institute a method of redemption for the 
guilty i The general impression unquestionably is, 
that that right belongs, in a degree at least, to the 



IN THE VIEWS OF GOd's PEOPLE. 411 

state and church; that the church is the ally of the 
state, and is to be upheld and invested with power 
to enforce her faith and discipline as the auxiliary of 
the government and the engine of public good. It is 
not suspected that the assumption of such a power is 
an arrogation of the inalienable rights of God, and is 
one of the greatest impieties of which men are ever 
guilty. A total revolution, therefore, is to be 
wrought in the views of God's own children, who 
have previously assented to the nationalization of the 
church, and the dictation by rulers and ecclesiastics 
of their faith, their rites and their worship, to their 
subjects ; that will require with many, a long and 
fierce struggle with prepossessions, party prejudices, 
cherished friends, and worldly interests ere they 
reach the truth in its greatness and sacredness, and 
are prepared to give their adhesion to it at the price 
of their lives. Some will fall ; some will falter : but 
the true people of God will at length see and embrace 
the teachings of his word with untrembling hearts, and 
will be ready for the consequences that may result 
from their fidelity. 

That the witnesses who are to be put to death and 
their believing friends who are to sympathize with 
them, are to have a full knowledge of the truths on 
which they proceed, and of the errors and impieties 
of their persecutors, is apparent from the fact that 
they are to be fully aware that they are the indivi- 
duals whose martyrdom is foreshown in the vision, 



4:12 THE MARTYRS ARE TO KNOW 

Rev. xi., and are to die in the full expectation of 
being at the end of three years and a half from their 
martyrdom raised from death to immortality and 
glory. That they and their associated believers, are 
to cherish and avow that persuasion, and that it is to 
be fully understood by their persecutors, is clear, from 
the care those who put them to death are to take, to 
conform all their measures to the prophecy of their 
death, their non-burial, their exposure to the gaze of 
spectators, and their resurrection at the end of three 
years and a half Those extraordinary steps will un- 
doubtedly be taken by those whose office it is to slay 
and preserve them, in the hope and expectation that 
the prediction of their resurrection will not be veri- 
fied, and that its non-verification will demonstrate 
that they are not the true witnesses of God, but 
hypocrites and fanatics ; and their prediction be 
thereby confuted, that the Son of God is soon to 
come in the clouds, and assuming the sceptre of the 
world, consign the powers that are hostile to him 
to perdition. "Why should the martyrs be slain 
in the same place and on the same day ; why should 
they be preserved unburied, and in a condition in 
which they may be inspected by whoever pleases, 
unless it be that they may be identified as the per- 
sons who were put to death as witnesses for Jesus ? 
And why should the people assemble at the scene 
where they lie, on the day in which it is predicted 
their resurrection is to take place, unless it be to test 



THAT THEY AKE THE WITNESSES OF JESUS. 413 

the truth of the prophecy, and be able to show that 
it is confuted by their remaining under the power of 
death ? Nothing can be more evident than that that 
is to be the aim and hope of the persecutors ; and 
nothing is more certain, therefore, than that the mar- 
tyrs are to be fully aware that they are the witnesses 
who are foreshown in the Apocalypse, ch. xi., and that 
they are to avow and proclaim that conviction, so that 
their death, non-burial, and resurrection in the pre- 
sence of a crowd of their enemies, shall be a proof on 
the one hand, of the truthfulness of their office as 
witnesses for God, and on the other, of the error, 
impiety, and doom of their persecutors. And this 
implies that the subject is to be discussed with great 
thoroughness, and for a long period, and that the 
witnesses and the believing who are not called to die 
for their faith, are to enjoy eminent aids of the Spirit, 
and be raised to a largeness and perfection of know- 
ledge, a strength of faith, and a fearlessness of man, 
immeasurably beyond what the renewed ordinarily 
attain. 

And this is indicated in the great promise : " And 
I will give unto my two witnesses that they may pro- 
phecy a thousand two hundred and three score days 
clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees 
and the two candlesticks standing before the God of 
the earth ;" that is, the receivers of the means of 
light, symbolized by the oil, and the agents of sus- 
taining and diffusing that light symbolized by the 



4:14 THEIE OFFICE AND MARTYRDOM 

candlesticks. " And if any man will injure them, 
fire proceedeth ont of their mouth, and devoureth 
their enemies. These have power to shut heaven 
that it rain not in the days of their prophecy, and 
have power over waters to turn them to blood, and 
to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they 
will," v. 3-6. It is as prophets that they are to exert 
these great acts ; that is, as messengers of G-od's will, 
proclaiming the great truths he has revealed in his 
word respecting the work of redemption, and utter- 
ing the fore warnings he has given of the judgments 
with which he is to overwhelm those who make war 
on him and his kingdom. This prediction indicates 
that they are to have special gifts and eminent aids 
of the Spirit, and are to act a part toward the perse- 
cutors, like that which Moses acted toward Pharaoh, 
and Elijah toward Ahab, between whom the ques- 
tion debated was the same as that which is to arise 
between the witnesses and their antagonists ; namely, 
Who is supreme ; Jehovah or the idols of Egypt ; the 
Lord God of Israel, or Baal? And it is to be determined 
by Jehovah himself, as it then was, not by men. 

"What momentous events the prophecy thus fore- 
shows ! How unexpected at the present moment by 
the people of Great Britain and the other European 
States? There is not one of a thousand probably, 
even of those who look for the speedy coming of 
Christ, who anticipates this bloody strife, and on a 
question that lies so wholly out of their ordinary 



NOT NOW UNDERSTOOD BY THE CHURCH. 415 

sphere of thought. The leading writers on the sub- 
ject, Cuninghame, Faber, Elliott, dimming, and 
others, having maintained with the utmost assurance, 
that the prophecy had its fulfillment ages ago, have 
betrayed the church generally into that false belief. 
But it is to be recalled from that delusion. The 
misrepresentations of those authors are to meet a 
just appreciation, and the truth again win the eyes 
and ears of the intelligent and impartial, and be re- 
ceived in its greatness and awfulness. 

" And when they shall have finished their testi- 
mony, the beast that ascends out of the abyss, shall 
make war against them, and shall overcome them, 
and shall kill them, and their dead body shall be 
placed in the street of the great city which is spirit- 
ually called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord 
was slain." v. 7, 8, The period of their testimony 
is to be twelve hundred and sixty days : which being 
used as a symbol in the relation of analogy, denote 
twelve hundred and sixty years. It is only by this 
close of the period, that the time is to be known 
when it commenced, there being no other means of 
determining its beginning. The prophecy only fore- 
shows its length and the event that is to mark its 
close. That their martyrdom has not yet taken 
place, is a conclusive proof therefore that the twelve 
hundred and sixty years have not yet expired. 

The great city in whose street their dead bodies 
were placed, was Babylon, which is the symbol of 



416 THE SCENE OF THEIR MARTYRDOM 

the Catholic hierarchies in that organization which 
is represented by the image. This is seen from the 
appropriation of the epithet great to that city, in the 
visions, and to that city alone, ch. xiv. 8, xvii. 5, 
xviii. 2, 10, 16, 18-21. The broad street of Babylon, 
was like the market places of Greek cities, the chief 
scene of concourse and commerce. It symbolizes, 
therefore, that part of the persecuting hierarchy 
which is to hold the central place in that body, and 
be the seat of its most important functions. Where 
that is then to be, whether in Italy, France, or Great 
Britain, is left unrevealed. 

" And they of the peoples and tribes, and tongues 
and nations, shall look on their dead bodies three 
days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies 
to be put in a supulchre." v. 9. This foreshows that 
the whole empire will have its thoughts fixed on 
them during the three years and a half of their lying 
in death ; and implies that the great doctrines they 
had taught, the exposition of this prophecy they had 
uttered, and the expectation with which they had 
died, that they should speedily be raised to a fresh 
and immortal life, to the confusion and overthrow of 
their enemies, will be the theme of continual consid- 
eration and debate during that period. Persons 
from different parts of the empire are daily to go and 
gaze at them, discuss the peculiarities of their faith, 
and express their estimate of their character, and 
their belief or unbelief of their restoration to life. 



IS TO BE BABYLON THE GREAT. 417 

" And they that dwell on the earth rejoice over 
them, and exult, and will send gifts to one another; 
for these two prophets tormented them who dwell on 
the earth." y* 10. This indicates that while the 
people of the empire generally will regard them as 
mere hypocrites or dupes, whose expectations of a 
public vindication by the Most High himself by a 
resurrection to glory, is to be disappointed, and con- 
sign them to ridicule and scorn ; they are still to be 
objects to them of great interest; and while hating 
them, they are to be haunted by a secret dread that 
the prediction of vengeance on their persecutors they 
had uttered, may prove true. 

And when the day of their predicted resurrection 
arrives, the curiosity, the concern, the anxiety, of 
the multitude, instead of subsiding, will be raised to 
far greater intensity. A crowd is to assemble in the 
scene where they lie, consisting largely of their en- 
emies, but embracing, also, it cannot be doubted, 
many of their friends, who will wait for the time 
that is to determine the truth or falsehood of the pro- 
phecy. "What hours will those be of uncertainty, 
of dread, of terror to some of the enemies, of scoffs 
and mockeries to others ; but of awe, of faith, and of 
joy to the believing. No moment can exceed it in 
the depth of feeling the infinite interests that are to 
be decided by the event will excite. 

At length the moment of deliverance comes. The 
Spirit of life from God enters into their dead bodies, 



418 THEIR RESURRECTION 13 TO BE A PROOF 

and they stand on their feet. And great fear falls 
upon them who see them ; and they hear a great voice 
from heaven, saying unto them, " Come up hither. 
And they ascend into the sky in the cloud, and their 
enemies behold them." v. 11, 12. Who can paint 
the impressions that amazing spectacle will make on 
those who witness it ? What other deliverance of 
his children of which the world has ever been the 
scene, carried with it so resistless and sublime an 
expression of God's approval ? What other seal set 
on the brows of those whom he redeems, ever indica- 
ted with such strength and resplendence that they are 
his ? What other testimony from the lips of the 
Almighty ever conveyed such confutation and doom 
to his enemies, as that restoration of his martyrs from 
death and elevation to life and glory in his king- 
dom will bear to their persecutors ! No bosom will be 
untouched : no spirit will remain unawed. No one 
will doubt the reality of the resurrection. It were to 
doubt the truth of his own eyes; to reject the resist- 
less testimony of his consciousness. No one will 
persuade himself that the revivification of the mar- 
tyrs, and their assumption to heaven, are not the 
work of God. No one will doubt that it is the iden- 
tical event foreshown in this prophecy. And none 
will fail to see how majestic a vindication it forms 
of the martyrs ; and with what terrific emphasis 
it speaks the condemnation of their murderers. 
Great fear will fall on all them that see them, wheth- 



OF THEIR ACCEPTANCE BY GOD. 419 

er friends or foes; and that awe and terror will 
spread through the whole empire, and seize every 
heart : for in the same hour there is to be a great 
earthquake, and a tenth part of the city is to fall ; 
and in the earthquake seven thousand men of name 
are to be slain ; and the remnant are to be affrighted 
and give glory to the God of heaven." v. 17. These 
effects will naturally spring from an intervention of 
the Almighty bespeaking in such an awe-inspiring 
manner his presence, his power, his fidelity to those 
who trust in him, and proclaiming in such tones the 
certainty that he will fulfill all the pledges of pro- 
tection and deliverance he has given to his true wor- 
shipers, and all his threatening^ of vengeance on 
those who make war on him and his kingdom. 

The earthquake is the symbol of a political revolu- 
tion, and foreshows that under the impressions of this 
interposition of the Almighty to redeem his witnesses, 
and baffle and confound the powers denoted by the 
beast and by Babylon ; the people of at least one of the 
kingdoms will rise and throw off their allegiance to 
the king who holds the sceptre over them. The tenth 
part of the city that is to fall, is the hierarchy of one 
of the ten kingdoms ; and doubtless of that in which 
the political revolution denoted by the earthquake 
is to take place, and give birth to a new form of 
government. The fall of the hierarchy, is to be its 
fall from nationalization. The overthrow of the 
State, is to involve the overthrow of the State-church. 



420 THEIR DEATH AND RESURRECTION 

That seven thousand men of name are to be slain by 
the earthquake, indicates that the revolution is to in- 
volve a civil war in which the chief officials of the 
government that is overthrown are to perish by the 
sword. That the remnant are to be affrighted and 
give glory to the God of heaven, shows that the cur- 
rent of popular feeling is to turn with such violence 
against the persecuting party in the state and in the 
church, as to fill them with terror who would other- 
wise be disposed to avoid engaging in the contest, 
and lead them to an open and unreserved acknow- 
ledgment, that God has irrevocably determined the 
question between the martyrs and their persecutors, 
and that his deliverance of his true worshipers, and 
condemnation of his enemies, are.worthy of his right- 
eousness, his wisdom and his power. 

The testimony, the death, and the resurrection of 
the witnesses are thus to form an epoch in the annals 
of the earth. They are to have the greatest conspi- 
cuity. The knowledge of them is to be carried to 
every bosom in the civilized world, and to thousands 
and millions of the Pagan and Mahometan races. 
They are to work the most radical, the most compre- 
hensive, and the most momentous revolution in the 
views of the true worshipers themselves, that ever 
took place, in respect to the incommunicableness and 
sanctity of God's rights, and the guilt of the arrogation 
of his place and prerogatives by human rulers, and 
ecclesiastics : and are to give rise to a train of conse- 



IS TO FOEM AN EPOCH TO THE WORLD. 421 

quences of the greatest significance ; prompting in a 
degree on the one side, the dragon, the wild beast, 
and the false prophet, to the measures they are to 
take to retrieve their cause from the shock it will have 
received ; and exciting the multitude on the other, 
in defiance of their will, to make the war on Baby- 
lon the great in whicli she is to fall from her nation- 
alization and perish. 



4:22 THE END OF TEIE SECOND WOE. 



CHAPTEE XXIII. 

The end of the Second Woe, or Fall of the Turkish Power — The Seventh 
Trumpet — The great events foreshown under the first five Seals — The 
Predictions under the Sixth — The Seventh Seal — The Trumpets — The 
Vision, chap. xii. of the Woman and the Dragon — The War of Michael 
and of Satan — The Vision, chap. xiii. of the Wild Beast from the Sea — 
The Beast from the Land and the Image — The Visions of ch. xiv., xv., 
xvi. 

I. 

After the prediction of the death, resurrection, and 
ascension of the witnesses, and of the impressions 
that are to be made by those events on the spectators, 
the prophecy adds : " The second woe is past. Behold, 
the third woe cometh quickly," ch. xi. 14. The second 
woe is that under the sixth trumpet, of the two hun- 
dred millions of horsemen from beyond the Euphrates, 
who were to kill a third of the men by fire and smoke 
and brimstone from the mouths of their horses, and 
were to leave the rest of the worshipers of demons 
and of idols, who survive the plague, as demoralized 
and incorrigible as they found them, Rev. ix. 14-21. 
Faber, Cuninghame, Elliott and others have main- 
tained with great positiveness that the second woe 
terminated at the battle of Zenta, in 1697, or the 
peace of Carlowitz, in 1699. Ko persuasion was 
ever built on a more unsubstantial foundation. The 



THE FALL OF THE TURKISH POWER. 423 

Turkish power is still in existence, and is still as false, 
as barbarous, and as bloody in proportion to its strength, 
as it was on its entrance into the Eastern empire. It 
is at this moment making a savage war on its Chris- 
tian subjects in Candia. The nnparalelled slaughters, 
tortures, and degradations, it was commissioned to in- 
flict, will not have reached their end till that monster 
which breathes fire from its mouth, and torments 
with its serpent's sting, is struck from existence. 

There is no intimation that the fall of the Turkish rule 
is to be the effect of the great miracle wrought in the 
"Western Roman empire, by which the truth of Chris- 
tianity, as held and taught by the witnesses, will have 
been demonstrated, and the falsehood and impiousness 
shown of Roman Catholicism, Mahometanism, and all 
other religions which are the work of men. It is to 
take place at near the same time,but is to be the effect, 
doubtless, of a different cause ; and probably of con- 
quest by a foreign power ; as the fall of the present 
government by a domestic revolution, while a great 
majority of the people remain the disciples of Ma- 
homet, would not necessarily draw after it the release 
of the nominally Christian population from the de- 
grading vassalage in which they are held. How 
could a mere division of the empire into three or 
four independent Mahometan kingdoms, naturally 
prompt a reinstatement of Christian churches, fami- 
lies, or individuals, in the religious freedom and civil 
franchises into which they will emerge, when the 



424: THE PALL OF TURKEY A MOMENTOUS EVENT. 

woe with which they have for so many ages been 
smitten reaches its end ? As the dragon which re- 
treated to the north on the fall of the Eastern em- 
pire in 1453, is to reappear on the scene, and act in 
concurrence with the wild beast and false prophet in 
summoning the kings to the great battle of God Al- 
mighty, Rev. xvi. 13-16, it is probable that Russia, 
whose monarch is now the head of the Greek com- 
munion, will make himself master of Constantinople, 
and extend his dominion over Asia Minor, Armenia, 
and Mesopotamia. On becoming the monarch of 
those territories, he will naturally nationalize the 
Greek Church, and divest the Mahometan popula- 
tion of power to persecute the professors of the Chris- 
tian faith. 

The overthrow of the Turkish rule and extinction 
of Mahometanism will be events of great significance. 
What a tragedy that people have acted for eight 
hundred years ! "What an exemplification their 
career presents of what man is, under the sway of a 
false religion that licenses all the brutal elements of 
his nature, and imbues him with the mercilessness 
and malice of a demon ! What ghastly proofs will 
the sins and miseries to which their religion has given 
birth form of its falsehood and malignity ! And how 
just, how wise, how gracious will it be in God to 
strike it to annihilation! Who can appreciate the 
benignity of the change to the fifteen or eighteen 
millions of Greeks, Armenians, and others who are to 



THE THIRD WOE. 425 

be released from bondage to the power which has 
made it its office for so many generations, to reduce 
them to the lowest physical degradation, and steep 
them in the most execrable moral pollution ! 

ii. 

Immediately after the announcement, "The second 
woe is past. Behold, the third woe cometh quickly," 
the seventh trumpet sounded ; and a group of events 
of the greatest moment was foreshown. " And the 
seventh angel sounded. And there were great voices 
in heaven saying, c The kingdom of the world is be- 
come our Jehovah's and his Messiah's, and he shall 
reign forever and ever.' " The loud voices in which 
this was uttered were from the lips of angels, and 
show that they are to be aware of the great measures 
of Christ's administration that are then to commence. 
That those voices were the voices of angels is seen 
from the peculiar expression, " Our Lord's "—that is, 
" our Jehovah's and his Messiah's," in which they 
designate Jehovah as their Jehovah, and Christ, not 
as theirs, but his Messiah. They were not redeemed 
spirits, therefore, of whom Christ is the Messiah, but 
were unfallen angels who do not need redemption. 
The reign of Christ, on which he is now to enter, is 
to be in this world, and in person ; not merely by a 
providence, or by the Spirit. He is to come in the 
clouds, so that every eye shall see him, and reign as 
conspicuously as he now reigns in heaven. 



426 THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 

The predictions that next follow were uttered by 
the elders. " And the four and twenty elders who 
sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and 
worshiped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O 
Lord God Almighty, who art, and wast, and art to 
come; that thou hast taken thy great power and 
reigned," v. 16, 17. What beauty marks this adoring 
celebration by the redeemed, of God's righteousness 
and wisdom in asserting his rights, and exercising the 
sway over the world to which his infinite power, 
knowledge and goodness entitle him ! What an un- 
derstanding of his ways it bespeaks, what confidence, 
what submission, what joy ! " And the nations were 
angry [at thy sway] ; and thy wrath is come, and the 
time of the dead, to judge and give the reward to thy 
servants, the prophets, and the holy, and those who 
fear thy name, small and great ; and to destroy those 
who corrupt the earth," v. 18. This is a prediction 
of the great measures of retribution which Christ is 
to institute at the commencement of his reign. The 
period of forbearance will have passed : the time to 
inflict his wratlf will have come, and the time of the 
dead, to judge and recompense his servants, the 
prophets and the saints ; to judge and reward the 
living also that fear his name, small and great ; and 
to destroy the corrupters of the race. The resurrec- 
tion and reward of the holy dead and the living 
saints, on the one side, is thus foreshown, as to take 
place under the seventh trumpet ; and on the other, 



THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 427 

the judgment and destruction of the corrupters of the 
nations. Through what period that trumpet, under 
which the last woe on apostates and persecutors is to 
be inflicted, is to extend, is not indicated. As the 
trumpet, however, is immediately to follow the close 
of the twelve hundred and sixty years, its period is 
probably the thirty years that are to intervene be- 
tween the twelve hundred and sixty days and the 
twelve hundred and ninety, that are to extend on to 
the time when the sanctuary is to be cleansed by the 
extirpation of the worship of creatures and the mass. 
What the order is to be in which these events are to 
take place, is not here foreshown, but is in a measure 
indicated in other passages. 

This prediction is followed by the announcement, 
that the temple of God was open in heaven, and the 
ark of his covenant was seen in his temple. " And 
there were lightnings, and voices, and thunders, and 
an earthquake, and great hail," v. 19. That the inner 
temple was open, and the ark of the covenant seen, 
denotes, doubtless, that the mysteries of his former 
administration, in which, though he reigned in the 
greatness of his power, he allowed the nations to re- 
bel and rage against him, are finished ; and he is 
thenceforth to reign visibly to men on the earth, 
make the reasons of his procedure understood, and 
complete the redemption of those whom he has chosen 
unto life. The predictions that follow are made 
through symbols. Lightnings, and voices, and thun- 



428 THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 

ders are symbols of analogous utterances and ex- 
plosions of the thoughts and passions of men. An 
earthquake is the symbol of a great and violent po- 
litical revolution, in which a government is over- 
thrown. And great hail symbolizes sudden and re- 
sistless inflictions on men, that resemble the dash of 
heavy hailstones on plants and trees. Whether these 
terrific excitements and retributive strokes are to be 
in a chief measure consequent on the startling and 
overpowering disclosures made through the death, 
resurrection, and ascension of the witnesses, is not in- 
timated. They probably are to be ; as those events 
produced so profound a conviction in the spectators, 
that the witnesses were true worshipers of God ; and 
that their forewarnings of the destruction of their 
persecutors would be verified ; that an insurrection 
immediately took place in one of the ten kingdoms 
which overthrew the monarchy, consigned the nobles 
to the sword, and hurled the Catholic hierarchy from 
its nationalization ; it may be expected that similar 
excitements and revolts from the ruling power will 
take place in one or more kingdoms in which there is 
a considerable number of Protestants. Whatever 
the extent may be to which these agitations and re- 
volts are to go, the power denoted by the wild beast 
is likely at this crisis to have other cares beside super- 
intending the migration of the Jews to the Holy 
Land ! It is the desperation with which the danger 
to his throne, resulting from his successless war on 



THE FIRST FIVE SEALS, 429 

the witnesses, is to inflame him, that will drive him 
to gather his forces together to make war at Arma- 
geddon on Israel, and on the Son of God. 

Hitherto there had been no symbolization in the 
Apocalypse of the great civil powers that were to 
rise and persecute the people of God. The event 
foreshown under the first seal was a rapid enlarge- 
ment of the church in the century or two following 
the vision. That indicated by the second, was the 
distraction of the church by ambitious and conten.- 
tious prelates. Under the third was revealed a 
famine of the bread of life, wrought by the substi- 
tution by the clergy of asceticism and other unre- 
quired works, in the place of faith in Christ as the 
condition of acceptance with God. And under the 
fourth, were foreshown the apostasy of the clergy to 
relics, and idol worship, the invocation of saints, and 
the sacrifice of the mass ; and their enforcement of 
those deadly doctrines and rites on the church. Un- 
der the fifth, the revelation was first clearly made in 
the prophecy that the people of God were to be put 
to death by them that dwell on the earth, but with- 
out indicating whether it was to be by factions, or by 
the ruling powers. 

The prediction under the sixth seal is of the great- 
est significance. Through a group of symbols taken 
from the material world, it is foreshown that the 



430 THE SIXTH SEAL. 

supreme and the inferior powers of the empire are 
to be overthrown by commotions and revolutions, and 
the monarchs, princes, and hosts armed against 
Christ, smitten with dismay and terror by the advent 
of the Son of God. 

" And I looked when he opened the sixth seal, and 
there was a great earthquake. And the sun became 
black as hair sackcloth, and the whole moon became 
as blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, 
as a fig-tree shaken by a great wind casts her unripe 
figs. And the clouded heaven was separated (into 
parts, and borne away) like an uprolled scroll, and 
the mountains and islands were moved from their 
places. And the kings of the earth, and the great 
men, and the commanders of thousands, and the rich 
and the mighty, and every bondman and freeman 
hid themselves in the caves, and in the rocks of the 
mountains, and said to the mountains, and to the 
rocks : Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him 
who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the 
Lamb ; for the great day of his wrath has come, and 
who is able to stand." Rev. vi. 12-17. A great 
earthquake denotes a violent political revolution. 
The blackening of the sun, and the bloodiness of the 
moon, which result from a loss of power to give 
light, foreshows that the monarchs symbolized by 
them, that had before ruled the empire, are to be di- 
vested of their power to go on with the functions of 
their office. The fall of the stars signifies the fall of 



THE SYMBOLS OF THE SIXTH SEAL. 431 

princes and nobles from, their stations ; the disrup- 
tion and nprolling of the vapors of the sky, the disso- 
lution and disappearance of the great civil organiza- 
tions of the empire ; and the removal of mountains 
and islands, the reduction of all to the same level. 

The consternation of the kings, the great men, and 
the commanders of thousands, and all inferior ranks, 
and night to the mountains to escape the wrath of 
the Lamb, foreshows that at the close of this series 
of commotions and catastrophes, the Son of God is 
to appear in the clouds of heaven, to execute his 
wrath upon his enemies. 

It is a question, therefore, of the greatest moment, 
whether those of these predictions which precede the 
last, have already been verified, or whether their 
accomplishment is yet future. They have been, inter- 
preted by many writers of the French revolution : 
and it has been assumed that the political agitations 
and upheavals symbolized by the earthquake, and 
the loss by the monarchs and princes of their power, 
denoted by the darkening of the orbs, are to continue 
at intervals down to the advent of Christ. It is un- 
doubtedly, however, a mistake, and a mistake that 
has had a most misleading influence on their views 
of the prophecies that follow. That a large share of 
the events foreshown by these symbols is yet unac- 
complished, is unquestionable. The Son of God 
most certainly has not yet come in the clouds of 
heaven. The kings of the earth, and the great men, 



432 THE SUBJECTS OF THE SIXTH SEAL 

and the commanders of thousands, have not yet 
gathered together at Armageddon to make war on 
the Lamb. The governments of the ten kingdoms 
have not universally fallen, and left their subjects in 
anarchy. And though a great earthquake denotes 
an event much like the uprising of the French 
people at the revolution ; and the loss by the sun 
and moon of the power of giving light, might aptly 
symbolize the loss by the king, and others of the 
Bourbon family at that juncture, of the power of 
going on with the functions of royalty ; and the fall 
of stars might naturally indicate the dejection of 
princes and nobles from their stations ; yet as the 
other symbols drawn from the natural world had no 
counterpart in that revolution, and instead of several 
groups, separated from each other by long intervals, 
consist of a single cluster that are naturally con- 
nected with each other; they undoubtedly are all 
yet future. And this is confirmed by the entire dif- 
ference of the objects on which the symbols of the 
seal acted, from those of the first six vials, which un- 
questionably had their fulfillment in the French 
revolution, the wars to which it gave birth, and the 
political and religious strifes that sprung from it at a 
later day. 

The symbols of the seals represent catastrophes that 
are to befall the rulers of the empire. But those of 
the first four and the sixth vials denote inflictions 
that are to fall on the subjects of the beast, instead 



UNLIKE THOSE OF THE VIALS. 433 

of the beast itself. The fifth was poured on the 
throne of the beast, but had its chief effect in 
shrouding its subjects in darkness, and causing them 
to gnaw their tongues for pain. 

The symbols of the seals were unlike those of the 
vials also in nature^ as well as the direction in 
which they acted. There was no earthquake under 
the first six vials. The darkening of the sun and 
moon under the sixth seal, betokened the loss by the 
supreme rulers of the power of discharging their func- 
tions as monarchs. The effect of the fourth vial on 
the sun — the symbol of a monarch — was to cause it 
to scorch men with great heat, and prompt them to 
blaspheme ; which is wholly different from the effect 
of the seal. There was no rolling up of the disparted 
heavens as a scroll under the vials, nor removal of 
mountains and islands. 

Under the seals, there are no symbols of bloody 
strifes and wars. But the symbols of the « sec- 
ond and third vials, are symbols of the massa- 
cres of the French population during the reign 
of terror, and of the vast slaughters of their armies, 
and the armies of the nations they assailed, in the 
twenty years of conquests and defeats that began 
with the revolution. As the symbols of the seal and 
of the vials are thus unlike each other ; the events 
they foreshow, and their times, it is evident, are in 
an equal degree to differ from each other. 

This is confirmed, moreover, by the fact that the 

19 



434 THE SEVENTH SEAL. 

period of the seal is to be the period of the wrath of 
the Lamb, which is to follow the seventh trumpet, 
and of the sealing of the servants of God, which, 
though it is to take place after the martyrdom of the 
witnesses, is to precede the advent of the Son of God. 
This will be more fully shown when I come to notice 
the vision of the sealing of God's servants, ch. xiv. 
1-5. 

The opening of the seventh seal was followed by 
voices, thunders, lightnings, and an earthquake, 
which foreshow the revolution that took place at the 
overthrow of the Pagan emperors by Constantine, 
and legalization of the church by the state. The first 
four trumpets were then blown, by which the con- 
quest and devastation, of the western empire by the 
Goths, and the fall of the imperial rule are foretold. 
Under the fifth trumpet the war of the Saracens is 
revealed; and under the sixth, that of the Turks, 
whose career is to continue to the slaying of the wit- 
nesses, and the sound of the seventh trumpet. 

IV. 

After the seventh trumpet, follows the vision, ch. 
xiiLj in which the supreme powers of the Roman em- 
pire from their origin, are represented by a great red 
dragon of seven heads, and ten horns, and seven 
diadems on his heads, down to the fall of the west- 
ern empire, and thereafter the imperial rule of the 
eastern empire, till its overthrow in 1453. 



THE VISIONS OF CHAPTERS XIII. AND XIV. 435 

Next follows the symbol of the wild beast from the 
sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his 
horns ten diadems, and upon his heads names of blas- 
phemy, representing the sovereignty of the ten kings 
in their several kingdoms, into which they divided 
the western Roman empire, on their overthrow of 
the imperial rule. 

To that succeeds the vision of the second beast 
from the earth, having two horns like a lamb, but 
speaking like a dragon, and symbolizing the twofold 
power of the papacy ; while the image it caused to 
be made represents the Catholic hierarchy formed by 
the union of the whole body of ecclesiastics in the 
Roman churches under the headship of the pope. 

Chapter xiv. contains the vision of the Lamb 
standing on Mount Zion ; the angel soaring through 
mid heaven with the Gospel : the angel announcing 
the fall of Babylon ; the third angel uttering a warn- 
ing against worshiping the beast and its image. It 
is then foreshown that the period of that warning is 
to be a period of persecution. 

Next is the vision of one like a Son of Man, 
throned on a white cloud, and reaping the harvest of 
the earth ; and that is followed by the vision of an 
angel gathering the vintage of the earth, and casting 
the clusters into the wine-press of God's wrath. 
These events, foreshown ch. xiv., are indubitably to 
take place after the martyrdom of the witnesses, and 
the sounding of the seventh trumpet. 



436 THE VISION OF THE VIAL ANGELS. 

V. 

The vision of the seven angels that were to bear 
the vials, follows in ch. xv., and of the pouring of the 
vials in eh. xvi., although the events the first six 
vials denote, have tmquestionably already in the 
main taken place / while the slaughter of the wit- 
nesses and the sounding of the seventh trumpet are 
still future. 

"What is the reason, it is natural to ask, of this 
arrangement of the visions in an order so differ- 
ent from that in which the events they foreshow are 
to have their accomplishment ? This question has 
met no satisfactory answer from expositors. Instead, 
they have run into extraordinary errors in their expo- 
sitions ; some asserting that the vials are all contem- 
poraneous with each other ; some that they are con- 
temporary with the sixth seal ; and others that they 
are included under the seventh trumpet. But those 
constructions are in the utmost degree mistaken. 
The reason that the vials occupy the place that is 
assigned them in the order of the visions, is un- 
doubtedly, that a previous symbolization of the great 
powers denoted by the seven-headed and ten-horned 
beast, the second beast and the image, was necessary 
in order that it might be understood whose subjects 
they were on whom the vials were to be poured. 
How could the guilty parties on whom the plagues 
of the vials were to descend, be identified, if it had not 
been shown in the vivid colors of the xiith and xiiith 






THE REASON OP THE ORDER OF THE VISIONS. 437 

chapters, what the powers are to which, instead of 
Jehovah, they pay their supreme homage ! After 
the delineations of those visions, the predictions in ch. 
xiv. of the great changes that are to take place in 
the conditions and acts of the true worshipers after 
the resurrection of the witnesses, and the prophecy 
of the harvest and vintage, it is apparent who they 
are on whom the vials are to fall, and what the 
crimes are that are to draw on them those fearful 
retributions. 

It is undoubtedly also for a similar reason, that 
the description of the scarlet beast that is to ascend 
out of hades, and of its relations to the woman 
Babylon, is reserved to ch. xvii. The student of the 
prophecy gains thereby a far clearer and more em- 
phatic conception of the character of the power 
represented by the beast and by Babylon, and of the 
justice o£ the doom that is to be inflicted on them 
than he otherwise would. 

A knowledge of these great features of the prophe- 
cies, I have thus pointed out, is of the utmost 
moment to the comprehension of what follows. Let 
the reader then carry in his mind the fact that the 
sixth seal is yet future ; that the catastrophe it fore- 
shows is that by which the powers denoted by the 
wild beast are to be borne down into hades ; that on 
its ascent from the abyss, the supreme Sovereignty 
is to be held by an imperial chief; that the ten kings 
are to become subordinates to him ; that he is to na- 



438 THE IMPOETANCE OF A KNOWLEDGE 

tionaiize the Catholic Church in all the ten kingdoms; 
that at the instance of that Church he is to persecute 
and slay the witnesses ; that the great question to be 
debated between the witnesses and their persecutors 
is to be : Who is of supreme authority in religion ? 
"Who has the right to institute a method of salvation, 
enjoin rites, and appoint a worship? Jehovah; or 
the civil and ecclesiastical rulers of the empire ? That 
the witnesses are to assert the exclusive right of God 
to legislate in the sphere of religion ; and denounce 
their persecutors as arrogating his prerogatives in as- 
suming power to appoint the faith of his subjects, and 
making war on him and his kingdom ; and are to fore- 
warn them of their impending destruction : that they 
are to indicate that they are the witnesses whom it is 
foreshown, are to be put to death ; and express the 
belief that God will raise them to immortal life: 
that their murderers are to follow the intimations of 
the prophecy, respecting their non-burial, and their 
exposure to the public gaze : that their restoration, 
therefore, to life and assumption to heaven, are to 
form an overwhelming demonstration that they are the 
true children of God ; and are to carry that convic- 
tion to the spectators and others ; and that that is to 
be followed by commotions and agitations, in the ten 
kingdoms, and by the spread of the feeling through 
the empire that the Catholic is not a true, but an apos- 
tate Church. These great teachings, and the fact that 
the predictions of ch. xii-xvii. are not arranged in the 



OF THE ORDER OF EVENTS. 



439 



order in which they were and are to be verified, but 
are grouped together in the manner they are, that there 
might be a clearer indication of the agents and acts 
which they reveal ; are thus of great moment to just 
views of the fulfillments that have already taken 
place, and that are approaching. It is only by knowing 
what the principles are, that are to be determined by 
the slaying and resurrection of the witnesses, and the 
effects which those events are to produce in the con- 
victions of the believing and unbelieving, that a just 
estimate can be formed of the occurrences that are to 
fill up the period from that epoch to the coming of 
Christ. 



440 THE EMISSION OF DEMON" SPIRITS, 



CHAPTEE XXIY. 

The Emission of unclean Spirits — The Sealing of the Servants of God — 
The flight of the Angel bearing the Gospel — The fall of Babylon — 
The third Angel uttering a warning not to worship the beast, nor the 
image — The destruction of Babylon. 

I. 

One of the great events that is to follow the death 
of the witnesses, and probably the seventh trumpet, 
is the emission of the unclean spirits after the pour- 
ing of the sixth vial on the Euphrates. " And I 
saw from the mouth of the dragon, and from the 
mouth of the beast, and from the mouth of the false 
prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs ; for they are 
spirits of demons working wonders, that go to the 
kings of the whole inhabited world to gather them 
to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 
Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, 
and keeps his garments, that he may not walk naked, 
and they may see his shame. And they gathered 
them in the place which is called in Hebrew Armaged- 
don, Bev. xvi. 13-16. The dragon's reappearance 
here, and sending forth an unclean spirit to cooper- 
ate with the spirits that proceed from the mouth of 
the wild beast and of the false prophet, shows that the 
power he represents, is to have a common interest 
with the imperial chief of the western empire and the 



AND GATHERING AT ARMAGEDDON. 441 

pope, in the war they are to wage against the king- 
dom of God ; and the reason is, doubtless, to be, that 
the question at issue is to be whether the monarchs 
of the earth have the right to dictate the religion of 
their subjects, and make the Church the instrument 
of the State. As the monarch of Russia is the head 
of the Greek church ; he will have as deep a concern 
in that question, as the powers symbolized by the 
wild beast and false prophet. This movement of those 
powers to unite the hosts of the whole civilized world 
to put down the kingdom of God by force, is probably 
to be first prompted by the alienation of the Catholic 
crowd from the pope's hierarchy, and the assaults 
made during the progress of that alienation, on the 
assumption by civil rulers of authority over religion. 
But as the agency of the spirits is to continue to the 
battle of Armageddon, a very considerable time will 
pass before it will reach its climax. The kings are 
not to be gathered at Armageddon till near the day of 
the battle. That such a measure should be adopted 
and pursued through a number of years, indicates a 
deep alarm for their supremacy by the powers whom 
the dragon, the wild beast and the false prophet de- 
note. As the object of the gathering at Armageddon 
is to be, to break up the Jewish community which will 
have reestablished itself in Jerusalem, it implies that 
at the period when these sj^irits enter on their work, 
a body of Jews will have returned to Palestine with 
the purpose of re-erecting a kingdom there ; and that 

19* 



442 GREAT CHANGES IN THE VIEWS OF THE CHURCH. 

the true worshipers of God in the ten kingdoms who 
take his word as their guide ; and are animated by 
the spirit of the martyrs, will hold and teach that 
Christ is to appear as their Messiah, reinstate them 
in their relations to him as a covenant people, and 
destroy the powers denoted by the beast and false pro- 
phet, by a miracle, as he had wrought a miracle to 
restore the slain witnesses to life. Why else should 
such a measure be adopted, to defeat the party of the 
martyrs and the Israelites ? Believers generally, it is 
obvious from this, are at that crisis to receive the 
teachings of the Scriptures respecting the restoration 
of the Jews, and Christ's reign over them. It be- 
speaks, therefore, a vast advance of the Church in the 
knowledge of those subjects, and the great scheme of 
Christ's administration. The fact that such a stu- 
pendous miracle will have been wrought to call the 
dead witnesses to life, and demonstrate that they were 
true worshipers of God, will be one of the reasons doubt- 
less that the demon spirits will attempt to work mira- 
cles to convince the multitude that they have as high 
a sanction of their procedure, as the witnesses had of 
theirs. The spirits are to be embodied doubtless in 
human beings, through whom they may work their 
behests, as in the time of Christ's ministry, they ex- 
erted their power through those of whom they took 
possession ; using their organs of motion and of speech 
as though they were their own ; imbuing them with 
thoughts ; exciting them to passion ; and wrenching 



THE ANGELS OF THE WINDS. 44:3 

them with bodily convulsions and tortures. The ef- 
fects to which they will give birth, will all lie within 
the sphere of their own nature, and theirs whom they 
make their victims ; yet they will to the spectators, 
doubtless, wear the air of miracles, and terrify and 
delude them. All this implies that the impression 
made by the witnesses, and of those who succeed 
them in the testimony of Jesus, are to be so effective, as 
to demand the most subtle and vigorous antagonism 
to counteract them. If no serious dangers are to threa- 
ten the dragon and his associates ; if there are no 
powerful forces to be met ; why should they employ 
such a dark and deluding enginery to secure them- 
selves from defeat ? 

n. 

Another group of agents is to rise contemporan- 
eously, it is probable, with the demon spirits, of 
directly the opposite character and sphere ;. their 
office being to unfold in a decisive manner, and vindi- 
cate the rights of God, and prompt the true worship- 
ers to render him a just allegiance. These are sym- 
bolized by the angel ascending from the east having 
the seal of the living God. 

" And I saw four angels standing at the four cor- 
ners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, 
that wind shall neither blow on the earth, nor on the 
sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel as- 
cending from the sun-rising, having the seal of the 



444 THE SEALING OF THE 

living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the 
four angels to whom it was given to injure the earth 
and the sea. Saying : Injure not the earth, nor the 
sea, nor the trees, until we can seal the servants of 
our God on their foreheads. And I heard the num- 
ber of the sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand 
were sealed of the whole race of the sons_ of Israel." 
Rev. vii. 1-8. 

This vision foreshows one of the greatest and most 
effective of the measures God is to employ to raise 
his people to a full knowledge of his rights" and their 
relations to him, and arm them with wisdom, stead- 
fastness, and faith to meet the great trials to which 
they are to be exposed from the artifices of the 
demon spirits, and the rage and malice of the wild 
beast and the sorceress Babylon. The angel is the 
symbol of a group of men who are to fill an office 
towards the true worshipers, that is analogous to that 
of impressing the seal of God on their brows. The 
resplendence of the angel, and the conspicuity of his 
ascent from the east, and flight through the arch of 
heaven, indicates that those whom he represents, are 
to be men of extraordinary gifts, and are to perform 
their work in the presence and gaze of the whole 
empire. The office of the seal, was visibly to mark 
those on whom it was impressed, as the servants of 
God, so that all spectators could identify them as 
his. They were not constituted his servants by the 
sealing, but the sealing marked and identified them 



SEKVANTS OF GOD. 445 

as his. The inscription on the seal which was irn 
pressed on the forehead, we learn from chapter 
xiv. I., was Christ's name, and the name of the 
Father. That which the sealing denotes therefore, 
is, that an agency is to be exerted by those whom 
the angel symbolizes, on those represented by the 
sealed, by which it shall become as indubitable and 
conspicuous that they are God's servants, as it 
would be if his name, and the name of Christ, were 
stamped by a seal on their foreheads. This implies 
most emphatically, that a special necessity is to 
exist for a public and indubitable manifestation that 
they are his true servants. Why should the Most 
High employ such an extraordinary measure to 
bring out in the most conspicuous form the reality 
and unalterableness of their allegiance, if there is no 
peculiar occasion for it ? The summoning of a group 
of extraordinary agents to exert such an influence 
on the sealed, most assuredly indicates that the effect 
to be wrought, is essential both to God's vindication, 
and the vindication of his servants. There is, there- 
fore, to be some powerful antagonism to be over- 
come, some special danger, against which his people 
will need to be guarded ; and that necessity is to 
spring, doubtless, from the loud and imperious denial 
by the beast, the image, and the demon spirits, that 
the witnesses, and those who concur with them, 
are true worshipers ; and endeavor by delusive pre- 
texts, and false miracles, to draw them either into 



446 THE SEALING OF THE 

doubt or apostasy. The question to be at issue, is 
therefore to be essentially the same, as it was in the 
conflict of the witnesses with their persecutors who 
usurped the rights of God, and claimed the homage 
as due to them, which belongs only to him. This is 
seen indubitably from the delineation of their pe- 
culiarities, ch. xiv. 1-5. " These are they who have 
not been defiled with women : for they are pure. 
These are they who follow the Lamb wherever he 
may go. They have been redeemed from men, a 
first offering to God and the Lamb ; and in their 
mouth no falsehood was found ; for they are spot- 
less." The women of the Apocalypse who present the 
cup of enticements to men, and endeavor to seduce 
them, are the woman Babylon and her daughters, 
who are symbols of the Catholic hierarchies. To be 
defiled by them is to assent to their claims of auth- 
ority, to receive their false doctrines, and to unite in 
their superstitious and idolatrous worship, and 
thereby reject God as the sovereign of the church, 
and Christ as the sacrifice for sin. That the sealed 
had not been defiled with those women, signifies, 
that they had never consented to their impious 
claims, never entered their communion, never united 
in their worship, but had shunned them as apostates 
and enemies, and maintained an unfaltering allegi- 
ance to God. Many others who are the children of 
God, may have belonged to nationalized churches, 
and held that rulers of the State have the right to 



SEKVANTS OF GOD. 447 

legislate over their subjects, in their relations to God. 
The sealed will never have sanctioned in any man- 
ner those consummate errors, but will have recognized, 
proclaimed, and vindicated the prerogatives of God 
with truth and fidelity. They will stand, therefore, 
in the attitude of direct and strenuous antagonism to 
the vassals of the beast and its image ; bearing the 
name of God on their foreheads, as the worshipers of 
the beast and the image bear their marks on their 
faces or their hands. The sealed will give their whole 
homage to God, according to his perfections, his 
rights, and his will : the vassals of the beast and 
image, will give their homage exclusively to those us- 
urping and blaspheming powers, according to their im- 
pious claims to authority, and demands of a worship. 
There will be ample scope, therefore, for the 
agency that is symbolized by the act of the sealing 
angel. Far truer, more comprehensive and impres- 
sive views of the sanctity and the inviolableness of the 
rights of God are possible, than have hitherto been 
attained. Just in proportion as the grandeur of his 
perfections is seen, the vastness of his empire, the 
subordination to him of all creatures, the boundless- 
ness of the interests that depend on the efficiency of 
his government, and the wisdom and righteousness 
that mark all his ways — just in that proportion will 
the feeling be deepened of the sacredness of his pre- 
rogatives, and the necessity of his asserting and main- 
taining them, in order to his own glory and the well- 



44S THE SEALING OF GOD's SERVANTS. 

being of his kingdom. In all these directions there 
is room for far clearer, higher, and more transporting 
thoughts. On the other hand, the larger, and truer 
the apprehensions become of the impiousness of the 
powers denoted by the beast and the image in arro- 
gating the place and rights of God ; demanding a 
worship of themselves, and treating those who pay a 
true homage to him, as traitors and apostates, that 
deserve torture in this world, and eternal perdition in 
the next, the deeper will be the execration with 
which the authors of that gigantic impiety, and the 
impiety itself will be contemplated, and the more 
instinctive and resistless the abhorrence with which 
they will be shunned. The guilt of the sin, and the 
boundless miseries to which it has given birth, in the 
debasement and ruin of the multitude, and in the 
oppressions, outrages, and murder of the children of 
God, may be painted in colors far more vivid, and 
with a fullness far more ample, than any in which 
they have hitherto been drawn. And how suit- 
able to God to employ these extraordinary and effi- 
cacious means to impart that higher knowledge to 
his people, and vindicate himself and them in the 
eyes of the universe? "Warred against, and blas- 
phemed as he is by the usurpers of his throne, it be- 
hoves him to set forth all the great truths that con- 
cern his attributes and his rule, in a light so dazzling, 
that no one can fail to see them. It befits him to 
confute all the calumnies of his enemies in such 



THE REWARD OF THE SEALED. 449 

a form, that all shall be constrained to see their true 
character, and the mouth of falsehood and malice be 
hushed into eternal silence. "Who can doubt that 
this great measure of the divine administration, so 
peculiar, and so grand, will prove an immeasurable 
blessing to those who feel its power ? That not only 
will the sealed be raised to far higher intelligence, 
steadfastness, and fidelity, than they would otherwise 
reach, and meet a more glorious reward ; but that 
millions may be withheld by it from apostasy, 
sheltered from dangers, and led on to crowns of im- 
mortal life? 

The period of the suspension of the winds, during 
which the sealing is to take place, is probably that 
which is to follow the resurrection of the witnesses, 
and is to be occupied by the first, second, and third 
angel, immediately before the destruction of Baby- 
lon. The purpose for which the winds are to be 
held, is to give opportunity to those whom the seal- 
ing angel represents, to warn, teach, and prompt 
believers and others to abstain from allegiance to 
Babylon, and resist her deceitful and malicious arts. 

That the reward of the sealed is to be in a measure 
peculiar to them, is seen from the fact that they alone 
could learn the song which they sang before the 
throne, and before the living creatures and the 
elders. ~No others, therefore, are to be presented by 
Christ to the Father, that will have the same dis- 
tinctions. Their diversity from others may be, not 



450 THE REWAKD OF THE SEALED. 

simply that they are the first offering of the kind ; but 
that no others can ever give such proofs as they will 
have given, of fidelity to God. Their salvation will 
have been completed, at their assumption to the 
divine presence ; as they are said to have been re- 
deemed from men, a first offering to God and to the 
Lamb. As they will have been freed from the curse, 
and admitted to the most intimate relations to Christ, 
they will doubtless have been changed from mortal 
to immortal, and in that relation, will be the first 
who are distinguished by that mode of redemption 
from death ; while the harvest is to consist of the 
living that are thereafter, at the close of the great 
tribulation, to be redeemed by a change from mortal 
to immortal. 

When this assumption to the tabernacle of the 
vision is to take place, is not indicated. That it is 
not to be before the resurrection of the holy dead, 
seems implied by the presence of the living creatures 
and elders in the vision, ch. xiv. They were present 
also in the vision in which the fall of Babylon is 
celebrated, ch. xix. 1-4, which is immediately to 
precede the resurrection of the saints and marriage 
of the Lamb. If the sealed are exalted for a time to 
the tabernacle in the heavens, what an impression it 
must make on the church, that remains on earth, and 
on the whole world ! What a majestic testimony to 
the truth and beauty of their allegiance ! What a 
throb it must send through the hearts of the true 



THE ANGEL WITH THE GOSPEL. 451 

worshipers who survive ! What confirmation it will 
yield to their faith, their steadfastness, and their love ! 
"What dismay and consternation will seize the perse- 
cutors and their vassals ! As God is to manifest his 
approval of the witnesses who are to lay down their 
lives for his word, by raising them from death to 
glory and thrones in his kingdom, why should he not 
grant a like signal of his acceptance of the sealed, 
who will have given equal proof of their allegiance, 
by changing them to immortal, and raising them for 
a period to his visible presence in the skies ? 

m. 

The vision of Christ standing with the 144,000 on 
Mount Sion, was followed by the flight of the angel 
through mid heaven, having the everlasting Gospel 
to proclaim to those who dwell on the earth, and to 
every nation, and tribe, and tongue, and people, 
saying with a loud voice, " Fear ye God and give him 
glory, for the hour of his judgment is come; and 
worship him who made heaven, and earth, and 
the sea, and fountains of waters," ch. xiv. 6-7. The 
period of this angel is manifestly not only after the 
death and resurrection of the witnesses, but after the 
seventh trumpet ; inasmuch as the angel announces 
that the hour of God's judgment, which is to com- 
mence with that trumpet, has come, ch. xi. 18. The 
angel is the symbol of men ; and the announcements 
he makes, and the summons he utters, represent the 



452 THE VASTNESS OF THE MULTITUDE, 

great messages they whom he symbolizes are to ad- 
dress to men. That they are to proclaim the Gospel 
to those who dwell on the Roman earth, and to 
every nation, and tongue, and tribe, and people, im- 
plies that their number is to be very great — myriads 
and tens of myriads. Otherwise such an emphatic 
proclamation of the Gospel to all nations, and warning 
to turn from the worship of God's works to the 
homage of him, could not be accomplished except in 
a long period. The time of this great measure will 
be immediately after the hour has arrived of God's 
judgment under the seventh trumpet. 

What a stupendous change this mission of so many 
thousands to the whole Christian, Mahometan, and 
Pagan world, bespeaks! A total revolution will 
manifestly have been wrought in the church that re- 
mains faithful to God in respect to his future admin- 
istration over the world. Now the number who look 
for Christ's speedy coming and reign on the earth, is 
comparatively small. Then no doubt will remain 
whether those great measures are foreshown in the 
Scriptures, and hold a most essential place in the di- 
vine purposes. Every believing heart will turn to 
him with the most fervid interest, the deepest awe, 
the loftiest joy, and consecrate itself without reserve 
to his service, and be willing to meet the self-denials 
and persecutions that are to try the fidelity of his 
people. How clearly this indicates that the great 
political changes which are to take place at the open- 



THE ANGEL WITH THE GOSPEL REPKESENTS. 453 

ing of the sixth seal, the rise of the beast from the 
abyss, the renationalization of the Catholic hierarchy, 
and the persecution, martyrdom and resurrection of 
the witnesses, will have been the means, through the 
aids of the Holy Spirit, of opening the eyes of the 
church, to the true teachings of the Scriptures on 
these and other subjects ; and raising them to a lofty 
knowledge, a filial subjection, and a joyful consecra- 
tion to him. Yet these results are such as might be 
expected from such confutations of the errors they 
now cherish, such necessities of re-studying the 
divine word, such fresh and stupendous verifications 
of its truths, such fearful perils, such crushing trials, 
such interventions of God to rebuke and confound his 
enemies, and such miracles for the deliverance of his 
witnesses and servants. Thanks be to his name that 
he is to rouse his people from their slumbers, break 
from them the shackles of misconception and delu- 
sion in which they are now held, and breathe the all- 
enlightening and transforming power of his Spirit 
into their hearts. 

This vision thus foreshows that before God begins 
to inflict the destroying judgments of the seventh 
trumpet, he is to call the whole race to a direct and 
emphatic decision whether they will worship him, 
and accept his mercy, or not. He is to raise up a 
host of messengers of eminent knowledge of his word, 
of great conspicuity, and of extraordinary power, 
whom he will send forth to all nations and kindreds, 



454 THE AIM OF THEIR MISSION. 

to proclaim to thern the Gospel, summon tliem to pay 
their homage to him, and warn them that he is about 
to judge and retribute them according to their deeds. 
While he thereby gives them an opportunity, if they 
will, to embrace his salvation, he will place them in 
a condition that will oblige them to show in the most 
decisive manner what their dispositions towards him 
are, and make it manifest to men and to the universe, 
that if they reject him, and persist in the worship of 
creatures and idols, the doom he is to assign them 
will be just to them, befitting his truth and righteous- 
ness and wisdom, and essential to the well-being of 
his kingdom. The announcements, the arguments, 
the exhortations, and the appeals of these messengers, 
will undoubtedly be of great power, and make pro- 
found impressions on myriads and millions of hearts. 
Their mission is manifestly to fill a place of great 
significance in the divine administration. It is to 
show in a sublime manner God's readiness to forgive 
and redeem all who bend in submission to his sceptre, 
and accept forgiveness and life through Christ. None 
will perish except by their own voluntary act. It is 
to put every individual in a condition to cause him 
to manifest in a direct and specific form, whether he 
will recognize and honor Jehovah as God alone, the 
creator and possessor of all ; or will give his allegiance 
to idols ; and it is to summon him to this decision in 
the presence of the indubitable and miraculous proofs 
that he is God, which he will have given in the re- 



THE EFFECTS OF THEIR MISSION. 455 

surrection of the witnesses, and their assumption to 
heaven, and in the confutation of the usurping and 
persecuting powers denoted by the wild beast and 
Babylon, by the sealing angel, and those on whose 
foreheads he is to impress the name of Christ and 
the Father. For all these great measures of the 
Most High, and of men, will be known not only to 
the population of the ten kingdoms, but to all other 
civilized nations, and in a large degree, doubtless, to 
all the kindreds and tribes of the earth ; and they 
will be understood and recognized as fulfillments of 
these prophecies respecting them, the witnesses, the 
sealing angel, the host whom he seals, and the mes- 
sengers symbolized in this vision. These ministers 
of God will also carry in their bosoms a perfect con- 
sciousness that they severally are the persons whom 
the prophecy foreshows ; and feel the self-possession, 
the strength, and the faith which that assurance will 
naturally inspire ; while those on whom they act will 
be touched in a measure with a like conviction that 
they are those whose advent and work in the pre- 
dicted scene are depicted in these visions. The utter- 
ances of those, we may justly believe, who make this 
last proclamation of the Gospel in such extraordinary 
conditions, will not be faint, formal, and unimpas- 
sioned deliverances of their message, but earnest, fer- 
vid, awe-inspiring, and of a power that will befit the 
crisis. "Who can doubt that myriads and millions 



456 THE FALL OF BABYLON. 

will Be touched by the summons, and hasten with 
loving and adoring hearts to the Saviour ? 

IV. 

The event next announced is the fall of Babylon : 
" And another, a second angel followed, saying, Great 
Babylon has fallen, has fallen, which made the na- 
tions drink of the infuriating wine of her fornication," 
v. 8. Great Babylon is the symbol of the Catholic 
hierarchies in their nationalization by the imperial 
government. Her fall is to be her dejection from her 
station as a state establishment ; by divesting her of 
the authority and support she had derived from the 
civil sovereignty of the empire, and leaving her to 
her own resources for sustenance, and the enforce- 
ment of her decrees. She will retain her organiza- 
tion after her fall, and endeavor to force her subjects 
to continue in allegiance to her, as is seen from the 
next announcement. Her power, however, to perse- 
cute to death, it would seem, will have ceased at the 
resurrection of the witnesses ; as her time, times and 
a half during which she is to wear out the saints, will 
then reach their end. But though retaining her 
pride, her imperiousness, and her malice, she will be 
restrained within a narrower sphere, and compelled 
to take the place of a weak auxiliary of the beast, 
instead of its equal and master. Her final destruction 
is to be postponed to a later period. 



THE FALL OF BABYLON. 457 

Her fall is thus to be an event of the greatest mo- 
ment, and is to bespeak a vast change in the struc- 
ture of the civil government, and in the senti- 
ments of the people at large toward her. For her 
overthrow, it is seen, ch. xviii. 9-19, is to be the 
work of her subjects; not of the imperial chief, the 
kings, or the nobility. This implies that the power 
of determining the measures that are to be pursued 
in regard to her, will have passed in a great degree 
into the hands of the people ; not by anarchy, for the 
civil government is still to exist in much strength, 
but through the elective franchise, and the force of 
the popular will. What a stupendous revolution this 
indicates ! The crowd are not only to be alienated 
from Babylon, as is foreshown by the drying up of 
the Euphrates, but the way is to be prepared by 
that dislike and disgust, for leaders answering to 
Darius and Cyrus, the kings of the east, who will 
directly assail, and at length conquer and destroy 
her. The wine of her fornication, of which she is to 
cause the nations to drink, symbolizes the enticements 
and sorceries by which she is to win, or drive the 
multitude to receive her false doctrines, enter her 
communion, and offer her worship of creatures and 
idols. Her being thrown down from her connection 
with the state because she had acted that impious 
and corrupting part, shows that her pretext that she 
is the vicegerent of God, and is sanctioned by him in 
her idolatries and atrocities, is then to be seen to be 

20 



458 THE FALL OF BABYLON. 

false. The cunning of her deceits, and the artifice 
of her miracles will be discerned and appreciated; 
and instead of being any longer upheld or endured, 
she will be detested and repelled as a monster of 
hypocrisy, of malice, and of blood. This violent 
revulsion from her by which she is to be severed 
from the state, is doubtless to be the consequence of 
her brutal war on the witnesses, her hardihood under 
the overwhelming proof their -resurrection is to form 
that she is an apostate, and is doomed to destruction; 
and her imperious attempts after all her refutations and 
rebukes, to continue her tyranny over those who are 
within reach of her power. The testimony the 
witnesses are to utter against her; the miracle by 
which God is to deliver their dead bodies from her 
power, and reward their fidelity by exalting them to 
his heavenly presence, the agency of the sealing angel 
in impressing the name of Christ and of his Father 
on the brows of his servants ; and the peculiar and 
unparalleled proofs those servants are to give of their 
allegiance ; must manifestly make the most powerful 
impressions on her vassals to rouse them to this strug- 
gle, without which they will be unable to free them- 
selves from her galling tyranny. 

This proclamation of her fall by a host of great 
and conspicuous messengers, shows that it is to be 
regarded as an event of the greatest import to the 
church and the world. The heralds of her fall, 
though the messengers of God, will probably proceed 



THE THIED ANGEL UTTERING A WARNING. 459 

from the capital where the doom of her denational- 
ization will naturally be made public by the imperial 
chief, in concurrence, perhaps, with the will of a 
representative legislature of the empire ; and they 
will characterize her as having made the nations 
drink of the intoxicating cup of her idolatry. And 
how justly may they exult over her overthrow ! 
They will understand a thousand times better than 
we do, the guilt of her apostasy, the impiousness of 
her blasphemies of God, the fury of her rage against 
his worshipers, the millions on millions whom she 
will have put to a cruel death for their fidelity to 
him, and the countless multitudes whom she will 
have led down to eternal destruction. "What joy 
will swell their hearts that her bloody career is over ; 
that no more victims are to be buried in her dungeons ; 
no more wrenched on her rack ; no more given by 
her remorseless hands to the flames. How will the 
tidings of her fate ring through the world!- How 
many thousands will repeat the exclamation : " She 
has fallen, she has fallen, great Babylon, which 
made the nations drink of the infuriating wine of 
her idolatry," and with what dismay and terror will 
it strike her and the baffled crowds that still follow 

in her train ! 

v. 

A group of messengers are next to go forth whose 
office is to utter a warning of the doom that is to fall 
on them who thereafter worship the beast and its 



460 THE THIRD ANGEL UTTERING A WARNING. 

image. " And another, a third angel, followed them, 
saying with a lond voice, ' If any one worship the wild 
beast and its image, and receive its mark on his fore- 
head, or on his hand, he shall even drink of the wine 
of the wrath of God ponred an unmixed wine into 
the cup of his indignation, and shall be tormented in 
fire and brimstone before the holy angels and before 
the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends 
forever and ever. And they have no rest day and 
night who worship the wild beast and its image, and 
whoever receives the mark of its name. Here is the 
patience of the saints, who keep the commandments 
of God and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice 
from heaven saying : TVrite ; Blessed are the dead 
who hereafter die in the Lord : yea, saith the Spirit, 
that they may rest from their labors, but their works 
follow with them." Ch. xiv. 9-13. 

This angel also is a symbol of a body of great and 
conspicuous men, who are to fill the office toward 
the church, and the population of the empire which he 
filled in the vision. That he followed the angels that 
preceded him, implies not simply that his flight was 
in the same direction, but that instead of being sepa- 
rated by a vast interval, they were near each other, 
as though when the first descended below the hori- 
zon in the west, the second began to mount the east- 
ern sky, and when he passed in the track of the 
setting sun beneath the line of vision, the third shot 
up the opposite arch of heaven. As they are thus to 



THE THIRD ANGEL UTTERING A WARNING. 461 

follow one another in quick succession, their work 
will occupy but a brief period. This warning and 
prophecy is to be addressed exclusively to the inhabi- 
tants of the ten kingdoms ; and it indicates that 
though the Catholic hierarchy denoted by the image 
will have fallen from her nationalization, she will 
still continue an organized body, and will go on pre- 
senting her intoxicating cup to those within her 
reach, and endeavor to beguile or constrain them to 
worship her and the wild beast, and receive a mark on 
their forehead or hand that will identify them as hers. 
To worship the beast and its image is to approve and 
ratify their arrogations of the place and rights of 
God, and trust and honor them as of higher authority 
than he. After all the miracles God will have 
wrought in proof of his exclusive deity, and all the 
demonstrations that will have taken place that the 
beast and Babylon are usurpers and apostates, many 
will still cleave to them from the love of sin, from 
party spirit, from unbelief, from worldly ambition, 
and from hatred of God. "What blindness ; what un- 
yielding hardihood! The doom denounced on the 
incorrigible bespeaks their guilt in worshiping crea- 
tures, and creatures of the vilest and most execrable 
character, as of the greatest possible impiousness ; 
and God accordingly concentrates in the threat of 
eternal punishment in the most ignominious and 
devouring form, the greatest possible motive drawn 
from the dread of evil, to awe and terrify them 



462 THIS WARNING 18 TO BE NECESSARY 

into a repulsion of the false worship demanded 
by the beast and its image. It will accordingly be 
seen in the clearest light, that those who at this crisis 
revolt from him and give their adoration to creatures, 
cannot be withheld from apostasy by the prospect 
either of endless blessedness or of endless misery : 
and that infinite righteousness, wisdom and truth, 
therefore, demand that they should be left to their 
choice, and the retributions it is to draw after it. 
They deny his title to reign ; they blaspheme his 
name ; they attempt to wrench the sceptre from his 
hands, and thrust him from his throne. He there- 
fore verifies his deity, his holiness, and his goodness, 
by adjudging them to a destruction by which their 
sin and misery will be forever made the occasion of 
his showing forth his perfections in a more dazzling 
resplendence, and binding his holy subjects to him 
in a more fervid and joyous allegiance. 

These fear-inspiring warnings are to be rendered 
necessary, the prophecy indicates, by a violent at- 
tempt of the persecuting powers to force not only those 
who nominally belong to the Catholic communion, but 
the true worshipers to yield obedience to their im- 
pious behests. "Here," it is announced, "is. the 
patience of the saints who keep the command- 
ments of God and the faith of Jesus. And a voice 
from heaven said : Write, Blessed are the dead who 
hereafter die in the Lord; yea, saith the Spirit, 
that they may rest from their toils, and their works 



to god's own people. 463 

follow with them." This warning is therefore to be 
followed by a furious and bloody persecution, by the 
imperial and kingly power, with the concurrence of 
the Catholic hierarchy ; for though she will have been 
separated from the state, yet from the fact that the 
aim of the persecutors is to drive the people of God 
to worship the image of the beast — that is, the Cath- 
olic hierarchy in its connection with the pope — as 
well as the beast itself, it is apparent that the Catho- 
lic power, though without authority to enforce its 
decrees, is to act in concurrence with the civil rulers. 
The servants of God generally are, therefore, at this 
crisis, to be put to as severe a test of their fidelity to 
him, as the witnesses were, when arraigned and com- 
pelled to choose betwixt apostatizing, or yielding up 
their lives. Revolt from God or death will now be 
the alternative presented to all. "What grandeur 
marks the intervention of God by a voice announcing 
the blessedness of those who, after this warning, die 
in the Lord ; that is, on his behalf, in expression of 
their allegiance to him ! What a thrill of strength 
and courage that assurance from the lips of the Al- 
mighty will shed through the hearts of his trembling 
children ! In how many bosoms those gracious words 
will be treasured up ! By how many joyous voices 
they will be repeated, and made to resound through 
the whole empire ! It is immediately before this 
great crisis, probably, that the sealing of the servants 
of God is to take place in the fervor and invincible- 



464 THERE IS TO BE ANOTHER 

ness to which their fear and love of him will be 
raised ; and possibly they are to be the persons sym- 
bolized by this angel, who are to utter the denun- 
ciation of eternal death on those who apostatize, and 
the promise of eternal blessedness to those who lay 
down their lives rather than swerve from their fidel- 
ity to God. In what fulness and beauty their adhe- 
rence to him will shine ! How indubitably it will be 
seen that they are meet to be admitted to his kingdom ! 
They are to rest from their perilous and exhausting 
labors ; but their works are to follow with them ; that 
is, they are to be received by the Almighty to his 
kingdom as martyrs who are forever to be crowned 
with special distinctions in his presence, because of 
their steadfastness here in truth and righteousness. 

The witnesses, it is thus foreshown, are not to be 
the last of God's children who are to be subjected to 
martyrdom. A far more general and terrible perse- 
cution is to take place after the fall of Babylon, in 
which the character of the two parties will be raised 
to the most emphatic contrast, and God will indicate 
by his own gracious voice, his approval of his faith- 
ful children ; while he will speak in accents of terror 
the doom that awaits his incorrigible enemies. And 
this great strife is to fill an important place in the di- 
vine administration, by showing in the most resistless 
light that those whom he accepts are truly renewed 
after his image, and prepared for admission to his king- 
dom ; for having maintained their allegiance under 



PERSECUTION AT THIS PERIOD. 465 

the greatest temptations to falter to which they could 
be subjected, how indubitable it will be that no trial 
they can afterwards meet can be of any power to 
shake their adherence to God. And this demonstra- 
tion, in all its greatness, is to be indispensable in or- 
der to the differing administration that is to be insti- 
tuted at Christ's coming, under whicb the race is 
to be sanctified, and saved without being carried 
through the trials that are so conspicuous a fea- 
ture of the present dispensation. The reality and un- 
alterableness of the renovation of those whom he now 
redeems, set forth with such strength and grandeur 
by the martyrs, will carry the assurance to every bo- 
som in the universe, that those whom he saves with- 
out subjecting them to similar trials, are equally re- 
newed, and raised to a fervor and steadfastness of 
love, that render their allegiance indubitable through 
eternal ages. It is thus seen again, from this vision, 
that the great question on which the conflict of the 
people of God with their persecutors is to proceed is : 
Who has the rights of law-giver over the church ? 
"Whose prerogative is it to institute a worship, ap- 
point a method of salvation, and demand a homage 
of men? The arrogation of that prerogative by 
the civil rulers, and Catholic priests, is clearly the 
vital principle of all their legislation over the 
Bible and the church, and all their persecutions of 
the true worshipers. It is also seen that the messen- 
gers who are to utter tlie-warnings of this vision are 

20* 



466 THE DESTRUCTION OF BABYLON. 

to be aware that they are the persons whom it fore- 
shows ; and that the whole church, and perhaps the 
population generally of the empire, will be impressed 
with the fullest conviction that their ministry is the 
fulfillment of this prophecy. After the slaying of tho 
witnesses, the heralding of the Gospel to all nations, 
the announcement of the fall of Babylon, and the 
sealing of the servants of God, the church will be in 
no uncertainty as to the point which the accomplish- 
ment of the prophecy has reached. 

VI. 

That a considerable period is to intervene between 
the denationalization of Babylon, and her final des- 
truction, is indicated by the violent persecution of 
the saints, in which, in conjunction with the wild 
beast, she is to engage after her fall. It is implied 
also in the deeper depth of degradation and malevo- 
lence to which she is to sink after her severance from 
the state. 

It is at this period, undoubtedly, that she is to 
receive the shock of the seventh vial. "And the 
seventh poured his vial into the air, and a great voice 
came from the temple from the throne, saying : It is 
done. And there were lightnings, and voices, and 
thunders ; and there was a great earthquake. The 
like had not been since men were on the earth : such 
an earthquake, so great. And the great city went 
into three parts ; and the cities of the nations fell. 



THE SEVENTH VIAL. 467 

And great Babylon was remembered before God, to 
give to her the cup of the wine of the vehemence of 
his indignation. And every island fled, and moun- 
tains were not found. And hail, great in weight as 
talents, descended from heaven. And the men blas- 
phemed God for the stroke of the hail, for its stroke 
was very great." ch. xvi. 17-21. 

Lightnings, voices and thunders, denote analogous 
commotions in the world of men. An earthquake is 
a symbol of a sudden and violent revolution in which 
the whole mass of a nation is thrown into anarchy, 
and the government overturned. This upheaval of 
the population in passionate and resistless revolt, is 
manifestly to extend through the whole empire ; as 
the Catholic hierarchy which is to be co-extensive 
with the ten kingdoms, and which though denation- 
alized, is to retain its organization up to this vial, is 
now to be rent into three parts, and every island is 
to flee, and all mountains disappear. 

As the great city is the symbol of the Catholic 
hierarchy, modeled after the form of the imperial 
government under Jovian and his successors, having 
the pope as its head, its division into three parts, de- 
notes that the Catholic priesthood is to be separated 
into three parties; Italian perhaps, French and Ger- 
man. It implies therefore, that Babylon will at this 
disruption, lose the support of two-thirds of the 
hierarchies. The cities of the nations which are 
also to fall, are the nationalized hierarchies in the 



46S THE DIVISION OF EABYLON INTO THEEE PAETS. 

Catholic and Protestant kingdoms that lie out of the 
western empire : such as Holland, Denmark. Prussia, 
Sweden, perhap Pussia also, and Greece. The 
effusion of the vial into the air, indicates that it may 
act in one direction as well as another. 

What the event is that is to prompt to this univer- 
sal revolution, is not specified. It may be an at- 
tempt of the civil power to renationalize the Catholic 
hierarchy. That it is in some way to have a direct 
reference to that church, is manifest from its issu- 
ing in its disruption into three parts ; and its being 
followed immediately by its annihilation. If the 
overthrow of the imperial government and the mon- 
archies of the ten kingdoms, is to be the condition 
of the extermination of the Catholic priesthood, the 
determination of the people to extricate themselves 
from that power, may lead them to revolutionize the 
imperial and kingly sovereignties. 

It is doubtless to be after a defeat of the Catholic 
hierarchy in a stuggle of some kind to reinstate itself 
in authority that the angel, ch. xviii., is to descend 
from heaven and proclaim again that she has fallen, 
and announce that her destruction is nigh. " And 1 
saw another angel come down from heaven having 
great power, and the earth was lightened with his 
glory. And he cried with a strong voice, saying : 
She has fallen, has fallen great Babylon, and become 
a habitation of demons, and a station of every un- 
clean spirit, and a station of every unclean and 



HER DESPERATION IN SIN. 469 

hated bird ; because all the nations have drunk of the 
inflaming wine of her fornication, and the kings of 
the earth have committed fornication with her, and 
the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the 
strength of her luxury." Ch. xviii. 1-3. The splen- 
dor of this angel bespeaks the momentousness of 
the errand on which they whom he represents are to 
come ! They are to light up by their conspicuous- 
ness and glory the whole atmosphere of the empire. 
Their voice is to ring through every vale, and rever- 
berate from every steep and hill ; and they are to pro- 
claim not only that Babylon has fallen, but that she 
has become the habitation of demons, and a watch 
post of every unclean spirit, a station for every 
unclean and hated bird ; that is, she is to wear a more 
haggard and ghastly aspect than before, and is to sink 
to a lower abyss of debasement and malignity, than 
she reached in the days of her luxury and power. 
All pretence to a religious character is to be aban- 
doned, and the attitude and air assumed of an odious 
bird of prey ; of an unclean spirit, whose office it is 
to defile ; and of a demon whose work is to torture 
and destroy ; and she is to employ herself in endeav- 
oring indiscriminately to steep those within her 
reach in the putrescence of her own pollution ; and 
wreak on them her insatiable malice. What a pic- 
ture of exasperated and reckless wickedness ! She 
is to reach such an extreme of shamelessness, malice, 
and fury, that the unholy themselves who meet her 



470 SHE IS TO PEEISH BY THE HAND 

glance, will recoil from her as from death's horrid 
shape. How righteous in God thus to allow her to 
reveal the full venom of her heart, and leave her 
at length to turn her poisonous fangs upon herself ! 
She is to be given up to make evil her good, because 
she had spent her life in seducing the kings and 
princes to sin, and drenching the nations with the 
cup of her abominations. Yet some of God's people 
are still to continue in her communion ! " And I 
heard another voice from heaven, saying : come out 
of her my people, that ye partake not of her sins, 
and that ye receive not of her plagues ; for her sins 
have accumulated unto heaven, and God has remem- 
bered her iniquities." v. 4-5. How clearly it is 
seen from this, that the warning of the third angel 
against offering any farther worship of the beast and 
its image, is to be needful to guard even some of 
God's children against that sin ! Some, though they 
may not formally have honored those usurping 
powers, may by remaining in their communion, give 
a tacit sanction to them, and expose themselves to 
be drawn into her sins, and made to share in her 
punishment. 

A voice from heaven now enjoins those who have 
suffered from her sorceries and tyranny, to destroy 
her as she had destroyed them. " Give unto her as 
she also gave," that is, without mercy ; and double 
to her double according to her works. Into the cup 
into which she has poured, pour to her double. In 



OF THE PEOPLE, NOT OF THE KINGS. 471 

one day her plagues shall come, death, and sorrow, 
and famine ; and she shall be burned with fire," v. 6, 
8. Her destruction is accordingly to be the work of 
the people on whom she had wreaked her malice ; 
not the monarchs and princes. Though her annihila- 
tion is to involve the death of those generally whom 
she represents, the pope, it is seen from ch. xix. is to 
survive : " And the kings of the earth who had lived 
luxuriously with her, when standing afar, for fear of 
her torment, they shall see the smoke of her burning, 
shall lament and mourn for her, saying, Alas, alas ! 
the great city Babylon, the mighty city ; for in one 
hour has thy judgment come. And the merchants 
of the earth weep and lament for her, because no one 
buys their merchandize any more ; they who have 
grown rich by her shall stand afar for fear of her tor- 
ment, weeping and lamenting, saying Alas, alas ! 
that great city which was clothed in linen and purple 
and scarlet, for in one hour so great riches are des- 
troyed. And a mighty angel took a stone, like a 
great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, 
Thus with violence shall the great city Babylon be 
cast down, and shall not be found any more." 
Vs. 9-21. 

What a group of stupendous events is thus fore- 
shown under the seventh vial, and the vision of the 
angel repeating the announcement : " She has fallen, 
has fallen, great Babylon, and become a habitation 
of demons, a watch-post for every unclean spirit!" 



472 THE SONG OF THE ANGELS AT HER DOOM. 

What revolutions of the civil governments are here 
foreshown, which expositors have universally over- 
looked ! What a solution the presumed defeat of the 
Catholic hierarchies in an effort to regain their lost 
power, furnishes of the exasperation in wickedness to 
which they are to be excited by their despair ! 

VII. 

On the destruction of Babylon, adoring acknow- 
ledgments of God's righteousness and power were 
uttered by the heavenly hosts. " After these I heard 
as a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, say- 
ing, Halleluia [that is, Praise Jehovah]. The salva- 
tion, and the glory, and the power of our God ; for 
true and righteous are his judgments: for he has 
judged the great harlot, who corrupted the earth 
with her fornication, and has avenged the blood of 
his servants from her hand ! And again they 
said, Halleluia ! And her smoke ascends for ever 
and ever. And the four and twenty elders and the 
four living creatures fell and worshiped God, who 
sat on the throne, saying, Amen. Halleluia." Ch. 
xix. 1-4. 

The loud voice of the great multitude was from 
the lips of angels, as is seen from the chant of acqui- 
escence in their hymn that followed from the elders 
and living creatures, who are symbols of the re- 
deemed in heaven. 

What grandeur marks this expression of their 



THE GRANDEUR OF THEIR ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 473 

assent and joy at the destruction of that apostate 
and malignant power ! What a sense it bespeaks of 
God's rectitude, and wisdom, and goodness, in consign- 
ing her to that doom ! What an understanding of 
her wickedness and her guilt ! What a feeling of 
the necessity that God should thus vindicate himself 
from her aspersions and put an end to her war on his 
people ! It is their lofty intelligence, their spotless 
purity of heart, and the glow and fervor of their 
benignity, that will prompt them thus to approve of 
his delivering her over to shame and perdition 
through the ages of ages. And how sublime is the 
Amen of acquiescence from the living creatures and 
elders, who represent the unnumbered hosts of the 
ransomed in the skies ! Plow clearly this chant 
shows that these great measures of God's avenging 
justice are fully known to all the inhabitants of 
heaven ; and that their effect is to bind them in 
firmer attachment to his service ! The perpetuation 
of her punishment through endless ages, is to be as 
necessary as her punishment at all. To strike her to 
annihilation, would imply that God could not uphold 
and reign over her for ever in her fallen condition, 
wisely and gloriously to himself. Her punishment 
will be perpetual, because she will for ever persist 
in sin ; and because her perdition is for ever to be 
overruled to his glory, and the well-being of his king- 
dom. This again indicates that a boundless signifi- 
cance is to attach to her destruction. Her doom is to 



474 Babylon's doom to be visible. 

be public and visible. She is to be " tormented with 
fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels 
and of the Lamb," and the smoke of her burning is 
to ascend up for ever and ever, ch. xiv. 10, as a sig- 
nal of the folly and madness of her sin ; and a token 
of God's righteousness, truthfulness, and power. 



THE MAN OF SIN. 475 



CHAPTEE XXV. 

The Man of Sin — Return of a part of the Israelites — Resurrection of the 
Holy Dead — The change of the Living — The binding of Satan — The 
Advent of Christ, and Battle of Armageddon. 

I. 

It is at this period, there is reason to believe, that 
the Man of Sin and Son of Perdition is to develop e 
himself, and set himself up as the object of worship. 
That his revelation of himself is not to take place 
until after the destruction of Babylon, and extinction, 
in the main, of the Catholic faith and worship, is seen 
from the warning immediately before her annihila- 
tion, ch. xiv. 8-11, against worshiping the beast and 
its image, and receiving its mark on the forehead, or 
hand. The Catholic religion is therefore to continue 
to be the religion of the persecutors and the unbe- 
lieving, so far as they have a faith and worship, down 
to the hour when the popular rage strikes the priest- 
hood of that fallen church from its organization and 
from life. It is to be at that moment accordingly, 
when the imperial chief and the kings being left 
without any religion, which they can enjoin on their 
subjects, and the multitude continuing more alien from 
Christ than they are to be from Roman Catholicism, 
which they will have just swept from the earth ; 



476 THE MAN OF SIN. 

that the Man of Sin will attempt to furnish his sub- 
jects with a new religion, by the pretext that he him- 
self is God, and has a supreme title to worship. He 
is to treat Christ as a deceiver, and Christianity as 
a fable ; as is seen from his making war on the Lamb, 
ch. xvii. 14 ; as though that Almighty Being had 
no power to protect his followers. And he is to do 
according to his will ; exalting himself, and magni- 
fying himself above every God ; and speaking mar- 
vellous things against the God of gods, and he is to 
prosper in that career of conquest and self-aggran- 
dizement, till the indignation denounced against the 
Israelites is accomplished. Dan. xi. 36-39 ; 2 Thess. 
ii. 3, 4. 

Monstrous as this deification of himself will be, it 
is so far from being improbable, that it may natu- 
rally, in a measure, spring out of the false metaphy- 
sics of Kant, Schelling, Hegel, and Coleridge, that 
have spread their deadly venom through almost the 
whole mass of the educated on the continent of Eu- 
rope, and largely in Great Britain ; their most dis- 
tinctive doctrine being the denial of God's personality, 
and substitution of a material or ideal pantheism in 
his place. When the Man of Sin blasphemes the 
God of gods, as being but an idea, and existing only 
in the thoughts of men, he will utter nothing that 
will shock the disciples of those impious hierarchs ; 
nor will he when he claims to be himself divine and 
entitled to worship ; as it will be but asserting of 



THE RETURN IN PART OF THE ISRAELITES. 477 

himself, what they hold to be true of all, each 
one being on their theory, an element in the uni- 
verse of matter, or thought, which according to 
them, is God. And he is to prosper in his arroga- 
tion of the name and place of God till the indigna- 
tion which is to be poured on the Israelites reaches 
its close. He will succeed in his false miracles. He 
will have the co-operation of the unclean spirits of 
Satan. He will gain a host of worshipers. 

ii. 

It is probably at this time — or perhaps at an 
earlier day — that the Israelites will begin to return, 
and re-establish themselves in their own land. The 
exact period of their re-gathering, and the attitude 
the nations are to maintain toward them, is not de- 
fined in the prophecies. It is only foreshown that 
they are to re-establish themselves in Palestine, and in 
Jerusalem, before the imperial chief of the western 
Roman empire shall make war on them. Zech. 
xiv. 1-9. The fact that he and the kings of his em- 
pire are at the prompting of the unclean spirits to 
proceed there with their armies, to intercept them 
from erecting a kingdom, of which many of them 
will believe Messiah, descending from heaven, is to 
become the king, implies that they will have return- 
ed in such numbers that a powerful force will be 
necessary to conquer them, and drive them again 
into exile. What period is to pass after the com- 



4:78 THE WAK OF ANTICHRIST WITH 

mencement of their return, before he invades Pales- 
tine, is not revealed, nor what the motives are to be, 
that are to prompt the king of the south and the 
king of the north to make war npon him. Dan. xi. 40. 
Their aim, probably, is to be to prevent him from 
encroaching on their own territory, as well as from 
conquering Palestine. The king of the south is 
doubtless, the king of Egypt. The king of the north, 
though he may have conquered Armenia and Meso- 
potamia, is probably the monarch of Pussia ; as he 
is to come with many ships, which no other northern 
power could employ in approaching Palestine. 
'Where his conflict with them is to take place, is not 
indicated, except that it is not to be in the land of 
Israel. He is to march into the countries, and is to over- 
whelm and pass through ; and he is to march into 
the goodly land, and many of the Israelites shall 
fall. But these shall be delivered from his hand ; — 
Edom and Moab, and the chief of the children of 
Ammon. v. 4. The goodly land, is the land of 
Israel. As he is not to invade that land until after he 
has fought the king of the south, and the king of the 
north, his battles with them are not to be in the ter- 
ritory that belongs to Israel. They are to be in 
Philistia, therefore Phenicia, or perhaps upper Syria. 
This is confirmed by the fact that he is not to invade 
Egypt, until after his contests with them, and his 
first invasion of the territory of the Israelites. He 
is to rule over the treasures of gold and silver, and 



THE KINGS OF THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH. 479 

over all the costly things of Egypt ; and the Lybians 
and Ethiopians are to be in his steps, v. 42-43. 
Nothing is said of his demanding submission to him- 
self as God, or seating himself in a temple at Jeru- 
salem. One of his chief aims is doubtless to be, to 
augment his territory, and increase his power, though 
his wish in that may also be to aggrandize his fame 
as a warrior, and thereby give a bolder color to his 
demand of worship from his subjects. 

But his main object in conquering Palestine and 
Jerusalem, it is clearly indicated by the gathering 
together of the kings and their armies to make war 
on the Lamb at Armageddon, is to be to prevent the 
fulfillment of the numerous prophecies that God is 
to recall his ancient people from their dispersion, 
re-establish them as a nation, and constitute Christ 
their king, and the king of all the earth, and destroy 
the persecuting and idolatrous rulers, who are array- 
ed against him. He will deem himself, doubtless, 
under an imperative necessity of confuting those 
predictions, from the resistless impressions made by 
the witnesses, the sealing angel, the sealed, and the 
martyrs, that are to suffer at the period of the third 
angel's warning against the worship of the beast 
and its image. To remain a careless spectator of 
these powerful assaults, he may feel will be tamely 
to surrender his throne ; while, as he will anticipate 
no conflict with any but a human power, he may 



480 THE SONG OF THE REDEEMED 

flatter himself that the conquest of Palestine, Syria, 
and Egypt, will be an easy task. 

in. 

After the hymn of the angels, the living creatures, 
and the elders at the destruction of Babylon, " A 
voice came from the throne, saying: Praise our 
God all ye his servants, and ye who fear him both 
small and great. And I heard as a voice of a great 
multitude, and as a voice of many waters, and as a 
voice of mighty thunders, saying, Halleluia! that 
the Lord God Almighty has reigned. Let us re- 
joice, and exult, and give glory to him; for the 
marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has 
prepared herself." ch. xix. 5-7. The voice from 
the throne is a summons from the angels, doubtless 
to the servants of God on the earth, and all who 
fear him small and great, to praise him. That it is 
from the heavenly hosts, is apparent from their de- 
nominating God u our God ;" and that it is address- 
ed to the servants of God on the earth, is seen from 
the appropriation to them of that name, which is 
exclusively theirs, and from their consisting of per- 
sons of all ages, the small and the great, which is a 
distinction that is known only to a race like ours, 
not to angelic orders of being. This call of all his 
people on earth to praise him, implies that a great 
epoch is reached in the divine administration that 



IN HEAVEN OVER BABYLON. 481 

demands a grateful and adoring recognition from his 
children, of every age and rank, who remain in the 
natural life. The response from the earth, like the 
voice of a great multitude, like the voice of many 
waters, like the voice of mighty thunders, indicates 
the number of the renewed on the earth is to be im- 
mense ; and shows, therefore, that the Spirit of God 
will have breathed his quickening influences on his 
true worshipers, during their long struggles with the 
persecuting powers ; given them wisdom and fidelity 
in the instruction of their families, heard their 
prayers, and made the word of truth from their lips, 
efficacious to vast numbers of the nations to whom 
they have addressed the testimony of Jesus. What 
sublimity breathes in their answer ! They glance 
first at the reign of God in the ages that are past, 
and then to the more wondrous measures of the ad- 
ministration he is about to institute : " Ilalleluia that 
the Lord God Almighty has reigned ! Let us 
rejoice and exult, and give glory to him ; for the 
marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has 
prepared herself." v. 6-7. How clearly this im- 
plies, that they are to understand all the great steps 
of God's government over his people, and over his 
enemies ; and see with what grounds they are 
fraught, of joy and thanksgiving- And how distinctly 
this proves that they are to be aware of the great 
events that are next to take place : the resurrection 
of the holy dead, and their installation in the offices 

21 



482 THE BINDING OF SATAN 

they are thenceforth to fill in his kingdom. The 
Lamb's bride is the symbol of the risen and glorified 
saints, and his marriage with them, their exaltation 
to the kingly and priestly stations which they are to 
occupy in his kingdom. Ch. xxi. 9-10. 

" And it was given to her that she should be robed 
in fine linen, bright and pnre, for the fine linen is the 
rightousness of the saints." Her investiture with 
those robes is the symbol of her justification. " And 
he said unto me, write ; Blessed are they who are 
called to the supper of the marriage of the Lamb." 
v. 9. Those called to the supper are not the bride, 
but living saints, and those doubtless who are to be 
transformed from mortal to immortal, and fitted there- 
by for admission to the most intimate relations to 
Christ in his kingdom on the earth. 

rv. 

Immediately before the resurrection of the holy 
dead, it would seem from the vision, ch. xx. 1-3 ; 
Satan and his legions, are to be bound, and banished 
from the earth for the period denoted by the thou- 
sand years. u And I saw an angel descending from 
heaven, having the key of the abyss, and a great 
chain in his hand. And he seized the dragon, the 
ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and 
bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the 
abyss, and shut and set a seal on it, that he might 
not seduce the nations any more, until the thousand 



AND DEJECTION INTO HADES. 483 

years should be finished ; and after them, he must be 
loosed a short time." Satan is here the representa- 
tive of the whole body of fallen angels of whom he 
is the chief. The abyss is the invisible world, the 
realm of the unholy dead. His dejection into that 
deep, and confinement there, denotes that he is to be 
precluded from access to men during the thousand 
years, and intercepted from his war on God's king- 
dom. The thousand years are the symbol of three 
hundred and sixty thousand. There is no more 
reason for assuming that the thousand years are not 
employed as representatives of a greater period that 
bears an analogy to them, than there is for assuming 
that Satan is not the symbol of any fallen angel but 
himself ; or that his being bound with a great chain 
and cast down into the abyss, and sealed there, are 
not symbols, but denote merely, that though an in- 
corporeal being, he is to be literally bound with a 
chain, and literally shut up in an abyss, by material 
barriers. The vision is symbolic, and the period is 
used as a symbol, as truly as the chain, the binding 
of Satan, his dejection into hades, and his imprison- 
ment there are. What a stupendous event this is to 
be ! How benign to the living race on the earth ! 
They are to be relieved in an instant by this great 
act of the Son of God, from the assaults of that gigantic 
wretch, who will through all preceding ages have 
wreaked his malice on every generation, and every 
individual that has come into being, and been the 



484 THE RESURRECTION OF THE HOLY DEAD. 

prompter of all the crimes into which they have 
been led, and the author of the degradation and 
misery with which they have been overwhelmed. 
But as he and his legions sink into the depth of 
hades, that terrific tempest which will have raged 
through so many thousand years, will subside into a 
calm. Silence, serenity, peace, will shed their balmy 
power over every nation and every heart. 

v. 

The resurrection of the holy dead, there is reason 
to believe, is to take place immediately after this 
chant of the servants of God that remain in life on 
the earth. It is implied in the marriage supper of 
the Lamb, which is then to be celebrated ; as those 
who are called the bride are they who are to be 
raised from the dead. It is implied also in the non- 
appearance of the living creatures and elders in the 
visions that follow the chant, ch. xix. 1-3, on the de- 
struction of Babylon. As they are symbols of the 
spirits of just men made perfect, their presence in 
that character, after their resurrection, would be pre- 
cluded. That their resurrection is to precede Christ's 
coming in the clouds to judge and destroy his ene- 
mies, is seen from the consideration that they are to 
come with him, ch. xix. 11-14 ; Thess. iv. 14 ; Zech. 
xiv. 5. Their resurrection is accordingly foreshown, 
chap. xx. 4-6, immediately after the binding of 
Satan. " And I saw thrones ; and they sat on them, 



THE RESURRECTION OF THE HOLY DEAD. 485 

and judgment was given to them ; and the sonls of 
those who had been beheaded for the testimony of 
Jesus and for the word of God, and whoever had not 
worshiped the wild beast, nor its image, and had not 
received the mark on their forehead, and on their 
hand. And they lived and reigned with Christ the 
thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not 
until the thousand years should be finished. This is 
the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who 
has part in the first resurrection. Over them the 
second death has no power, but they shall be priests 
of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a 
thousand years." This is thus expressly declared to 
be the first resurrection ; a resurrection exclusively 
of the holy dead, and a corporeal resurrection ; for it 
is to be a resurrection, among others, of those who 
had been put to death under the reign of the beast 
and its image, for the testimony of Jesus, and for the 
word of God. When they first met the apostle's 
glance, he called them souls — conscious human 
spirits, which was descriptive of them while disem- 
bodied by death. Their resurrection was their in- 
vestment with incorruptible and glorified bodies. 
That their resurrection is to be corporeal is seen also 
from the prediction that the second resurrection is to 
be of that nature. As the second resurrection is to 
be from the grave and death, so also is the first. The 
saints thus raised to life were then installed in their 
offices as kings and priests by the gift to them of ju- 



486 THE CHANGE OF THE LIVING SAINTS. 

dicial authority ; and they entered on their reign 
with Christ. The rest of the dead are not to live un- 
til the thousand years are finished. 

What an amazing display of the knowledge, the 
power, and the grace of the Redeemer this instant 
summons of innumerous millions from the ruins of 
the grave to a glorious and deathless life will form ! 
"What a moment to the raised will it be of wonder, 
of adoration, and of joy ! 

VI. 

It is foreshown by Paul that in intimate connection 
with this great event, the living saints are to be 
changed to immortal. " The Lord himself shall 
descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of 
the archangel and the trump of God, and the dead in 
Christ shall rise first. Afterwards, we who are alive 
and remain, shall be caught up to meet the Lord in 
the air ; and so shall we ever be with the Lord," 
1 Thess. iv. 16-17. Those who are thus to be caught 
up to meet the Lord in the clouds, we learn from 1 
Cor. xv. 51-54, are at their assumption to be changed 
from mortal to immortal. " Behold I show you a 
mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be 
changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, 
at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the 
dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be 
changed. For this corruptible must put on incorrup- 
tion, and this mortal must put on immortality. So 



THE CHANGE OF THE LIVING SAINTS. 487 

when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, 
and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then 
shall be brought to pass the saying that is written • 
Death is swallowed up in victory." 

The passage from Thessalonians implies that there 
is to be an interval between the resurrection of the 
dead and the transformation of the living ; €7tsira 
rendered in the common version, then, that is next, 
being equivalent to afterwards. That the change of 
the living is not to be strictly contemporaneous with 
the resurrection, is shown also by the prediction that 
the dead in Christ shall rise first ; that is, before the 
transformation of the living. How long the interval 
between them is to be is not revealed. The transla- 
tion of those who are changed to the cloud in the air 
is doubtless in order to their being judged and accepted. 
The throne of the Almighty will be in the heavenly 
temple in the atmosphere, as it was in the visions. 

This transformation of the living is obviously that 
foreshown under the sixth seal, when, after the seal- 
ing of God's servants, who are to be the first on whom 
this renovation and exaltation of nature is to be con- 
ferred, he saw a great multitude, whom no one could 
number, of every nation and tribes and peoples and 
tongues, standing before the throne and before the 
Lamb, and clothed in white robes, and having palm 
branches in their hands. And they cry with a loud 
voice, saying, The salvation to our God who sits on 
the throne and to the Lamb ! And all the angels stood 



488 TIIE GREATNESS OF THEIR NUMBER. 

in the circuit of the throne, and of the elders, and of 
the four living creatures, and fell before the throne 
on their faces, and worshiped God, saying, The bless- 
ing, and the glory, and the wisdom, and the thanks, 
and the honor, and the dominion, and the might to 
our God forever and ever. Amen ! " ch. vii. 9-12 
That this vision of the transformed is to have its ac- 
complishment soon after Christ's advent, is seen from 
the announcement by the angel that " these are they 
who came out of the great tribulation, and washed 
their robes and made them white in the blood of the 
Lamb." The delineation which follows of their re- 
ward, is of ineffable beauty. " Therefore are they 
before the throne of God, and serve him day and 
night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne 
shall dwell in a tabernacle with them. They shall 
not hunger any more, nor thirst any more, neither 
can the sun strike them, nor any heat, because the 
Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall guide 
them, and lead them unto the fountains of the waters 
of life ; and God shall wipe away every tear from 
their eyes." — Ch. vii. 15-17. 

"What transcendent events these are to be ! How 
clearly they bespeak the introduction of a new dis- 
pensation ! With what emphasis they indicate that 
the multitude of the sanctified on the earth at 
the time of Christ's coming is to be innumerable ; 
that his power to redeem will have been manifested 
with ineffable glory during the long struggle of the 



THE BATTLE OF AEMAGEDDON. 489 

persecuting powers to crush his kingdom into extinc- 
tion ! What wonder will thrill the breasts of the 
living on finding themselves instantly freed from the 
sentence of death, and the blight and wreck brought 
on them by the fall ; raised to that integrity, that 
beauty, that glow of nature that belongs to immor- 
tals, and entering on a spotless, blissful, and unde- 
caying existence ! "What grandeur of power, wisdom 
and love marks this new method of deliverance from 
the curse of sin ! What a proof it is to form of the 
efficacy of Christ's expiation, and the glory of his 
righteousness ! It is in this mode, doubtless, exclu- 
sively, that men are to be raised during the thousand 
years into the freedom from evil that is then to distin- 
guish the sons of God. 

vn. 
Soon after the resurrection of the holy dead, and 
the marriage supper of the Lamb, the Son of God is to 
descend with his risen saints, and destroy the wildbeast, 
the kings and their hosts who will have gathered to- 
gether to the battle of the great day of God Almighty. 
It is foreshown, Daniel xi. 44-45, that after the king 
who deifies himself has conquered Palestine, Egypt, 
Ethiopia and Lybia, " tidings out of the east and out of 
the north shall disturb him. Therefore he shall go 
forth with great fury to destroy and to lay waste 
many, and he shall place his regal tent between the 
seas and the holy and beautiful mountain, and he 
shall come to his end, and none shall help him." The 



490 THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON. 

tidings out of the east are doubtless to come from 
Edom, Moab, and Ammon, and those from the north 
from the hosts of Russia in Upper Syria, or on the 
Euphrates ; and are to indicate that fresh forces are 
gathering against him to snatch his conquests, espe- 
cially Palestine, from his hands. He is therefore to go 
forth from Egypt with great fury, to destroy those 
who assail him, or who he may fear are ready to re- 
volt from him ; and will at length proceed to Idu- 
mea, where he and his army are to be struck to per- 
dition by a power, and in a form he will not have 
anticipated, though forewarned by the word and the 
people of God. 

" And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white 
horse, and he who sat on it is called faithful and true, 
and in righteousness he judges and makes war. And 
his eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head 
many diadems, having a name written which no one 
knew but he, and he was clothed in a garment dyed 
with blood. And his name is called the "Word of God. 
And the armies which were in heaven followed him 
on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and 
pure. And from his mouth proceeds a sharp sword, 
that with it he may smite the nations. And he shall 
rule them with an iron sceptre, and he shall tread 
the wine-press of the wine of the vehemence of the 
wrath of God Almighty. And he has on his garments 
and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and 
Lord of Lords. 



THE BATTLE OF AKMAGEDDON. 491 

" And I saw an angel standing in the sun. And 
be cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds 
that fly in midheaven, Come, gather ye together 
to the great supper of God, that ye may eat flesh of 
kings, and flesh of commanders of thousands, and 
flesh of mighty men, and flesh of horses, and of them 
who sat on them, and flesh of all, both freemen and 
slaves, both small and great. 

" And I saw the wild beast, and the kings of the 
earth and their armies gathered together, to make 
war with him who sat on the horse and with his 
army. And the wild beast was taken, and the 
false prophet with it, who wrought wonders before 
it, with which he deceived those who received the 
mark of the wild beast, and those who worshiped its 
image. And they two were cast alive into the lake 
of fire which burns with brimstone. And the rest 
were slain with the sword which proceeded from the 
mouth of him who sat on the horse, and all the birds 
were filled with their flesh, " ch. xix. 11-21. 

He who sat on the white horse is the Son of God. 
The armies of heaven, which followed him, are the 
risen and glorified saints ; as is indicated by their white 
robes, which are the symbols of their justification, 
and show that in the interval between their resurrec- 
tion and their descent from heaven with Christ, they 
had been presented by him to the Father, and ac- 
cepted as his. The false prophet is the pope, as is 
seen by his having wrought wonders before the beast, 



492 THE DESTRUCTION OF ANTICHRIST 

with which lie deceived those who received the mark 
of the beast, and worshiped its image. Having lost 
his power at the destruction of his hierarchy denoted 
by the image, he appears here, as far as is seen, 
without any train. His sympathies are to be with 
the beast, though that monster has set himself up 
as God ; and they are to perish together by being 
taken and cast alive into the lake of fire which burns 
with brimstone. "Where their destruction is to take 
place is not here indicated. It is, however, it would 
seem from Isaiah xxxiv., not at Jerusalem. There is 
no intimation in the prediction of Christ's descent on 
the Mount of Olives, Zech. xiv. 5, that the beast or his 
armies are then to be there ; and no hint that the fires 
by which they are to be consumed are to fall on that 
scene. Instead, the Israelites in the city are, on the 
occurrence of the earthquake, to flee from it into the 
new-formed valley extending to Azal ; which implies 
that the upheaval and cleaving of the ground are the 
only dangers to which they are to be exposed. Ar- 
mageddon, in the great plain of Esdraelon, having 
been the scene of two great battles, is used doubtless 
as the symbol simply of a place of great slaughter. 
The site of the battle in which the beast and his ar- 
mies are to perish is undoubtedly in Idumea, whither 
after his return from Egypt he may go to add to his 
conquests that country, which had before escaped his 
hands, Dan. xi. 41. It is foreshown in Isaiah, that 
that is to be the scene of God's vengeance in the year 



TO TAKE PLACE Etf IDUMEA. 493 

of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. " For 
my sword reeks in the sky ; behold it shall come 
down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse 
to judgment. The sword of the Lord is filled with 
blood ; for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrali, and a 
great slaughter in the land of Idumea. And the uni- 
corns shall come down with them, and the bullocks 
with the bulls ; and their land shall be soaked with 
blood, and their dust made fat with fatness. For 
it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, the year of re- 
compenses for the controversy of Zion. And the 
streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the 
dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof 
shall become burning pitch. And it shall not be 
quenched night nor day ; the smoke thereof shall go 
up forever. From generation to generation it shall 
lie waste, none shall pass through it forever and ever." 
Isaiah xxxiv. 5-10. This is confirmed by the predic- 
tion, Isaiah Ixvi. 23-24, that those who repair to 
Jerusalem from sabbath to sabbath, to worship be- 
fore Jehovah, shall go forth and look upon the car- 
casses of the men that have transgressed against him ; 
for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire 
be quenched ; and they shall be an abhorring unto 
all flesh." And this is in harmony with the predic- 
tion, Zech. xiv. 12-15, that the plague with which 
the Lord will smite all the people that have fought 
against Jerusalem, is to be a consuming of their 
ilesh while they stand upon their feet, and a consum- 



494 THE DESTRUCTION OF ANTICHRIST 

ing of their eyes in their sockets ; and a consuming 
of their tongues in their mouths. The plague of the 
horse, and of the mule, and of the camel, and 
of the ass, and of other beasts that shall be 
in their tents, is to be the same as of the men. 
Such a wasting of the flesh, and of the eyes, and of 
the tongue would be the effect which a sudden en- 
velopment in volcanic fire would produce. 

That Idumea is to be the scene of this burst of 
avenging fire on the foe, is shown also, Isaiah Ixiii. 
1-6 : " Who is this that cometh from Edom, with 
dyed garments from Bozrah ; this that is glorious in 
his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength ? 
I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Where- 
fore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments 
like him that treadeth in the wine vat ? I have trod- 
den the wine-press alone, and of the people there were 
none with me ; for I will tread them in mine anger, 
and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall 
be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all 
my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in my 
heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I 
looked, and there was none to help, and I wondered 
that there was none to uphold. Therefore mine own 
arm brought salvation unto me ; and my fury it 
upheld me ; and I will tread down the people in mine 
anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will 
bring down their strength to the earth." Bozrah is a 
city of Idumea. The treading of the wine-press de- 



TO TAKE PLACE IN IDUMEA. 495 

notes the same destruction of the beast and his armies 
as is couched under the symbol of the attle of Ar- 
mageddon. It is into a lake, therefore, of fire and 
brimstone that is to gusli up from the burning depths 
of Idumea, that the beast and false prophet are to be 
cast ; and it is there that their unconsuming bodies, 
and theirs who are to perish with them, are forever 
to welter; — monuments of God's avenging justice; 
and objects of horror and execration to all the gene- 
rations of the holy, through eternal ages. Isaiah 
lxvi. 24. 



496 THE NEW HEAVENS AND EAETH. 



CHAPTEE XXYI. 

The New Creation of the Heavens and Earth— The Judgment of the Liv* 
ing Nations — The Eeturn of the Israelites who still remain in Disper- 
sion—The Means by which the Eace is to be Delivered from Sin— The 
events that are to follow the Thousand Years of Christ's Eeign— The 
Eelease of Satan, the Eevolt of a Multitude — Their Destruction — Satan's 
Doom — The Last Eesurrection and Judgment — The Surrendry of 
the unfallen Worlds to the Father — Christ's Everlasting Eeign on the 
Earth, and the continued Eedemption of Men through endless ages. 

The new heavens and new earth beheld by the 
prophet were undoubtedly symbolic, as the former 
heaven and earth had been repeatedly used as sym- 
bols. This is confirmed by the absence of the sea. 
As the earth is to be inhabited after its new creation, 
a sea will be as necessary to vapors, rains, fountains, 
streams, and vegetable and animal life, as it is now. 
The new heaven, therefore, represents rulers of a 
new order, the earth subjects of a new character, 
and the absence of the sea, the freedom of the na- 
tions from the storms of revolution and war. 

The period of the new creation of the heavens 
and earth is to be that, it appears, which is to inter- 
vene between the deliverance of Jerusalem from the 
beast and his armies that will have conquered it, and 
the entrance of the risen saints on therr reign. The 



THE NEW CKEATI0N OF THE HEAVENS AND EAETIT. 497 

first is seen from Isaiah ; the last from John. " For 
behold I create new heavens and a new earth ; and 
the former shall not be remembered nor come into 
mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that 
which I create ; for behold I create Jerusalem a re- 
joicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in 
Jerusalem, and joy in my people ; and the voice of 
weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice 
of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant 
of days, nor an old man who shall not fill his days ; 
for a child (he would be who) should die an hun- 
dred years old ; and one who should be a sinner a 
hundred years old would die accursed." Isaiah lxv. 
17-20. The renovation of the atmosphere and earth 
is to take place at the same period as the renovation 
of the living saints ; and the change is to fit them for 
the abode of beings that are immortal. There is to 
be no more sorrow, no more death in infancy, no 
more premature old age. The same picture is drawn 
in the Apocalypse of the condition of the race at the 
descent of the ISTew Jerusalem. " And I John saw the 
holy city New Jerusalem, coming down from God out 
of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her hus- 
band. And I heard a great voice out of heaven say- 
ing, Behold the tabernacle of God with men ! And he 
will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, 
and God himself shall be with them, their God. 
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; 
and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor 



498 THE HARVEST OF THE EIGHTE0T7S. 

crying ; neither shall there be any more pain, for the 
former things are passed away. And he that sat 
upon the throne said, Behold I make all things new. 
Arid he said nnto me, Write, that these words are 
true and faithful." Ch. xxi. 2-5. 

What a sublime act of mercy ! What a divine 
gift ! Though the race is still to come into existence 
mortal, and none are to become immortal except by 
a change of their nature ; yet none are to die ; none 
are to suffer ; none are to weep ; and manifestly, 
therefore, none are to sin : for how, if sin and death 
continue to reign, can there be no pain, no crying, 
nor sorrow ? Those who have their birth under that 
dispensation will accordingly come into life in essen- 
tially the state corporeally in which Adam and Eve 
were created — susceptive or capable of death, but not 
subjected to it, because they will be preserved from sin ; 
as the first pair would have been exempted from it had 
they maintained their allegiance. In what majesty 
will the attributes of Christ appear in this deliverance 
of the countless generations -of the millennial ages 
from the curse of sin ! How adequate he will be 
seen to be to the work he has undertaken ! In what 
resplendence beyond the present thoughts of men 
will his immeasurable love then appear ! 

n. 

That it is to be after the investiture of the risen 
saints, with their offices as kings and priests, that 



THE HARVEST OF THE KIGHTEOUS. 499 

the living nations are to be judged, is seen from their 
being sent forth as Christ's messengers to gather his 
elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to 
the other. Matt. xxiv. 31. This is foreshown in the 
vision of the reaping of the earth, ch. xiv. 14-16. 
"And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the 
cloud one sat like a Son of Man, having on his head 
a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And 
another angel came out of the temple, crying with a 
loud voice to him that sat on the cloud : Thrust in 
thy sickle and reap ; for the time is come for thee to 
reap ; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he 
that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth, 
and the earth was reaped." The being seated on 
the cloud was undoubtedly a risen and glorified saint. 
He is said to be like a son of man, to show that he 
was a human being. That he had been raised from 
the dead, justified, and glorified, is seen from his 
golden crown. He is not the Son of God, manifestly 
from his being directed by an angel when to thrust 
his sickle on the earth, which is unsuitable to the 
eternal Word ; and from his foreshowing that his 
angels, i. e., messengers, are to gather together his 
elect. In the parable of the wheat and tares also, the 
good seed are the children of the kingdom, the har- 
vest is the end of the age, and the reapers are — not 
men — but angels — messengers. The being on the 
cloud represents, therefore, the whole body of the 
glorified saints. How suitable this office is to the 



500 THE HARVEST OF THE RIGHTEOUS. 

lofty powers with which they will be endowed ; the 
intimacy of their relations to Christ ; and their 
interest in the living saints whom thej are to gather 
to his presence. Their gathering before his throne, 
is to be in order to their being judged, accepted, and 
admitted to his kingdom according to Christ's predic- 
tion, Matt. xxv. 31-36: "When the Son of Man 
shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with 
him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory ; 
and before him shall be gathered all nations ; and he 
shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd 
divideth his sheep from the goats ; and he shall set 
the sheep on his right hand, and the goats on the left. 
Then shall the king say nnto them on his right hand : 
Come, ye blessed of my Father ; inherit the kingdom 
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 
For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat : I was 
thirsty, and ye gave me drink ; I was a stranger, and 
ye took me in ; naked, and ye clothed me ; I was 
sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye 
came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, 
saying: Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and 
fed thee ; or thirsty, and gave thee drink ? "When 
saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in ; or naked, 
and clothed thee ? Or when saw we thee sick, or in 
prison, and came unto thee? And the king shall 
answer and say unto them : Yerily inasmuch as ye 
have done it unto one of the least of these my 
brethren, ye have done it unto me." How clearly 



THE VINTAGE OF THE IRRECLAIMABLE. 501 

this indicates that this judgment is to be preceded by 
a violent persecution according to the prediction, 
Rev. xiv. 9-13, that during the denunciation by the 
third angel of the wrath of God on all who worship 
the beast, or its image, the people of God are to be 
put to a decisive test of their fidelity to him ; and 
will when called to that alternative, give up their 
lives for his sake. Others whose blood is not shed, 
are to be imprisoned or robbed of their property and 
left without relief, to suffer the miseries of hunger, 
sickness, and desertion. It implies, too, that the in- 
terval between that persecution and this judgment, 
is to be but brief, as both the persecuted and perse- 
cutors will still be in life. 

in. 

Immediately after the harvest, the vintage is to 
take place. "And another angel came out of the 
temple which is in heaven, he also having % a sharp 
sickle. And another angel came out from the altar 
who had power over fire, and cried with a loud voice 
to him who had the sharp sickle, saying : Thrust in 
thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine 
of the earth ; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the 
angel thrust his sickle into the earth, and gathered 
the vine of the earth and cast it into the great wine- 
press of the wrath of God ; and the wine-press was 
trodden without the city, and blood came out of the 
wine-press, even unto the horse-bridles, by the space 



502 THESE CLASSES ARE TO BE OF THE LIVING NATIONS. 

of a thousand six hundred furlongs." Rev. xiv. 
17-20. 

The grapes are symbols of the wicked ; their being 
reaped and cast into the wine-press of God's wrath, 
denotes their being gathered together, and their being 
violently destroyed; the blood of the grapes sym- 
bolizes their blood ; and the extensive surface which 
it flooded to such a depth, bespeaks the vastness of 
the multitude who are thus to be consigned to des- 
truction. This vision is parallel with the judgment 
of the wicked in the parable, Matt. xxv. 4-46. 
" Then shall he also sav unto them on the left, De- 
part from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, pre- 
pared for the devil and his angels ; for I was an 
hungered, and ye gave me no meat ; I was thirsty, 
and ye gav r e me no drink ; I was a stranger, and ye 
took me not in ; naked, and ye clothed me not ; sick 
and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall 
they also answer and say unto him : Lord, when saw 
we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or 
naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister 
unto thee ? Then shall he answer, saying : Verily I 
say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the 
least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go 
away into everlasting punishment ; but the righteous 
into life eternal." 

This judgment of the righteous and wicked, is to 
be the Judgment of the living exclusively ; and of 
those on the one side who, during the persecution of 



THE RETURN OF THE ISRAELITES. 503 

the worshipers of God immediately before, will have 
given the most decisive proofs of their allegiance to 
him, by bearing in steadfastness the outrages to 
which they are subjected by the beast and its image; 
and of those on the other, who will have shown in an 
equally indubitable form, by withholding all sym- 
pathy from the sufferers for Christ's sake, that they 
are approvers of the beast and its image. It will be 
confined, therefore, to the nations in which a perse- 
cution has taken place ; and of those we may believe 
there will be millions at least of the young, who will 
not be included in these sentences, inasmuch as they 
will not have made any decisive manifestation of 
either a true friendliness, or hostility to Christ's per- 
secuted people. 

As the judgment of the several nations will doubt- 
less take place successively, it will occupy a con- 
siderable period. 

rv. 

The Israelites who are in exile at the time of 
Christ's advent, will, after the destruction of the per- 
secuting powers, and the conversion of the nations, 
and contemporaneously with the new creation of the 
heavens and the earth, be recalled to their national 
land. "And I, (because of) their works and their 
thoughts, it is meet that I should gather all the nations 
and the tongues, and they shall come and see my glory, 
(i. e., his visible presence at Jerusalem) ; and I will set 



50 4 THE RETURN OF THE ISRAELITES WHO 

among them a sign ; and I will send survivors of them 
to the nations, Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, drawers of 
the bow, Tubal and Javan, the distant isles which 
have not heard my fame, and have not seen my 
glory ; and they shall declare my glory among the 
nations. And they shall bring all your brethren 
from all nations, an oblation unto Jehovah, with 
horses and with chariots, and with litters, and with 
mules, and with dromedaries, to my holy mountain 
Jerusalem, saith Jehovah ; as the children of Israel 
brino; the oblation in a clean vessel to the house of 
Jehovah. And also of them will I take for priests 
and for Levites, saith Jehovah. For as the new 
heavens and the new earth which I create, stand be- 
fore me, saith Jehovah, so your name and your seed 
shall stand." Isaiah lxvi. 19-22. 

It is clear from Isaiah xxxv, and Jeremiah xxxi. 
8-9, that this restoration is to take place contempo- 
raneously with the renovation of the heavens and 
earth ; as the deserts are to be changed to fruitfulness 
and watered with springs, to supply them on their 
journey. It is shown also, Isaiah xi. After predicting 
that the Messiah with righteousness shall judge the 
poor, and reprove with equity the meek of the 
earth, and shall smite the earth with the rod of his 
mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the 
wicked ; and righteousness shall be the girdle of his 
loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins ; the 
prophet adds : " The wolf also shall dwell with the 



HAVE REMAINED IN DISPERSION. 505 

lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and 
the calf and the young lion and the fatling together ; 
and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and 
the bear shall feed ; their young ones shall lie down 
together ; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And 
the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and 
the weaned child shall put his hand on the cocka- 
trice's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all 
my holy mountain : for the earth shall be full of the 
knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." 
The whole of the material and animal world will 
thus be freed from the curse at this epoch, and rein- 
stated in its pristine innoxiousness, and subordination 
to man. And the Gentile nations, it is seen from 
their aiding the Israelites on their return, will have 
been brought to faith in Christ. 

It is then added : " And it shall be in that day 
that the Gentiles shall seek unto the root-sprout of 
Jessie, which stands as a signal to the nations, and 
his rest — that is his place or station — shall be glori- 
ous. And it shall be in that day — when the Gen- 
tiles shall seek to the root of Jessie — that Jehovah shall 
stretch out his hand the second time to recover the 
remnant of his people, that shall be left, from 
Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and 
from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and 
from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And 
he shall set up a signal to the nations, and shall 
assemble the outcasts of Israel, and bring together 

22 



506 THE KETURN OF THE ISRAELITES. 

the dispersed of Judah from the four wings of the 
earth." v. 10-12. 

It is to be after the destruction, therefore, of the 
antichristian powers, not before, as Dr. Tregelles, Mr. 
Newton, and other writers of their class maintain ; 
and after the nations have been brought to look unto 
Christ as their Redeemer, and contemporaneously with 
the renovation of the earth and air, that this great 
summons to return to the land of their forefathers is 
to be borne to the scattered sons of Israel. The na- 
tions that had held them in bondage, and trampled 
them down for ages, are to turn and joyfully bear 
them back as a sacred offering to Jehovah ; and 
miracles, like the drying of the Red Sea and of 
Jordan, are to be wrought to remove obstructions to 
their progress homeward. Isaiah, ch. ix., 15-16. 
xxxv. 1-10, 

This is to be one of the greatest and most majestic 
of the measures of the new administration Christ is 
to institute. What a multitude of promises it will 
fulfill ! What an exemplification it will form of his 
power and sovereignty ! How suitable to the gran- 
deur of his attributes, that instead of suffering that 
people to be wrested from his hands by the malice 
of Satan, he should make their revolt, and the long 
ao-es of their abandonment to blindness, incorrigi- 
bleness and misery, the occasion of a higher mani- 
festation of his wisdom and grace in their salvation I 
What a vastness and comprehensiveness mark his 



CHRIST IS TO INSTITUTE 507 

purposes of mercy toward them, compared with the 
thoughts of men ! After ages of revolt in the most 
impious forms, and punishment by the direst degra- 
dation and wretchedness, how clear it will be that 
their redemption thereafter in their unending genera- 
tions, is the work of his sovereign love ! As they 
are to be exalted to intimate relations to him, and to 
fill offices of great significance toward the rest of the 
race, Micah iv. 6-8, the spotless rectitude to which 
they are to be raised, the fervid love with which they 
are to glow, and their joyous activity in his service, 
will make them a more illustrious monument than 
the saved of any other nation, of the riches of his 
power, wisdom, and grace. 

The measures by which the race is to be delivered 
from sin and its curse, and raised to lofty intelligence, 
unsullied rectitude, and unalloyed blessedness, under 
the reign of Christ, are to have a peculiarity and 
greatness suited to their ends. 

1. Of these, the first is to be the visibleness of his 
presence and reign. Instead of remaining on the 
throne of heaven, and revealing himself only by his 
providence and word, he is to enthrone himself on 
Mount Zion, Ps. ii. 6, 7, and manifest himself in his 
glory to the eyes of all the inhabitants of the earth, 
receive their awed and rapturous homage, and 
bless them with his voice and smile. The impres- 
sions made by this revelation of himself, will trans- 
cend all others in greatness and beauty. Some 



508 A NEW DISPENSATION. 

indeed, with an inconsideration that is surprising, 
deny that his visible presence can have any adapta- 
tion to disinthrall the beholder from darkness, insen- 
sibility, and unbelief, because the renovation of the 
mind is the work of the Holy Spirit. But that is 
wholly to misjudge, first of the condition of those 
to whom he is thus to manifest himself ; and next of 
the effect which the sight of his person, the accents 
of his voice, and his acts of righteousness and grace 
will produce in the hearts of the renovated. Those 
over whom he is to reign in visible glory are to be re- 
newed, not impenitent and hostile ; and the convic- 
tions and realizations wrought in them will naturally 
be of the highest adaptation to give power and strength 
to their affections toward him. To imagine that he 
will be beheld by them without impression ; or that 
his presence will only stun and bewilder, or awaken 
selfish fear, is to betray the grossest ignorance both of 
him and of themselves. Is there a renovated person 
on earth that could meet the glance of that Almighty 
Being, to whom he owes his salvation, behold the 
glory with which he is invested, and hear his gra- 
cious voice, without a gush of awe, of gratitude, of 
love, of adoration, that would fill all the depths of 
his spirit! It cannot be. Why did God reveal 
himself visibly to Adam, to Enoch, to Noah, to 
Abraham, to Job, to David, to Isaiah, to Jeremiah, 
to Ezekiel, and other prophets, if that manifestation 
of himself had no adaptation to penetrate them with 



HE IS TO REIGN ON THE EARTH IN PERSON. 509 

a conviction of his being, his perfections, his right, 
and his dominion ; and rouse their holy affections to 
the most vivid energy ? "Why did Christ reveal 
himself to Panl ; why did he raise him to Paradise, 
and disclose to him the mysteries of his reign there, 
if it had no suitableness beyond all other means, to 
augment his knowledge, to add fervor to his love, 
and give strength to his faith, that he might be fitted 
for the labors and conflicts of the ministry assigned 
him, in which he was to meet the scorn of unbe- 
lievers, and the rage of the persecuting ? It was 
because of the peculiarity and greatness of the truths 
disclosed to him, and the inerradicable impressions 
made on his heart, that those visions were employed 
to mould him for the service to which he was called. 
The power of Christ's visible presence in his reign 
on earth, will be far, far greater to exalt mankind in 
knowledge, to raise them to perfect faith, and to in- 
spire them with the holy affections in their loftiest 
forms that become their relations to him. The first 
dazzling beam from his countenance will put an 
eternal end to unbelief. No one will ever again 
doubt his existence, question his deity, or hesitate 
to recognize and adore him, as the Creator, the 
Ruler, and the Saviour of men. The chants of the 
living creatures, the elders, and the angels in the 
divine presence, may be taken as exemplifying the 
resplendence of thought, the comprehensiveness of 
knowledge, the fervor of adoration, the rapture of 



510 HE IS TO POUR OUT THE SPIRIT ON ALL. 

joy, that are to characterize the homage of the living 
who are to bend in his presence in his reign on the 
earth. 

2. The life-giving influences of the Holy Spirit 
are to be poured on them in measures wholly unpar- 
alleled in the present age. and to endow them with 
prophetic gifts. " And it shall come to pass, after 
(the restoration of Israel) that I will pour out my 
Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daugh- 
ters shall prophecy; your old men shall dream 
dreams, your young men shall see visions ; and also 
upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those 
days, will I pour out my Spirit." Joel ii. 28, 29. 
They will not be left to their own powers, great and 
refined as they may be, in their search after know- 
ledge, and endeavors to instruct their families, and 
associates ; but will enjoy the enlightening and ele- 
vating aids of the Spirit, and receive accessions to 
their intelligence and impulses to their love, in. that 
miraculous form. 

3. They are to be freed from the tempting power 
of Satan. Bound in fetters and hurled with his 
legions down the depths of hades, he will be precluded 
from exerting his malignant agency on men, blinding 
their minds, suggesting to them false and impious 
thoughts, inflaming their passions, and luring them 
to destruction. Who can appreciate the greatness, 
the benignness, the joyfulness of this deliverance ! In 
the struggles of the renewed now against evil, their 



THEY ARE TO BE FREED FROM THE CURSE. 511 

battle, we are taught in the Scriptures, is not exclu- 
sively with themselves and their fellow beings, but 
with spirits from the abyss. " For we wrestle not 
against flesh and blood, but against principalities, 
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of 
this world, against wicked spirits " in aerial regions ; 
that is, the hierarchies of hell, who are carrying on a 
war wherever they can, against God and his king- 
dom. 

What a calm will settle on the world when he is 
dashed to his prison ! All the infinite brood of evil 
thoughts he injects into the minds of his victims, all 
the tempestuous excitements of passion, all the envy, 
and hate, and rage, and revenge, he engenders in 
their bosoms will vanish with him ; and order, serenity, 
and peace, spread their mild dominion! over the 
world. 

4. They will be freed from all the disorders of a 
fallen nature with which the renewed are now left 
to struggle. The body and mind will be in narmony 
with each other; the intellect and will invested with 
authority over the thoughts and affections, and all 
the functions of life be unobstructed and healthful. 
"What a contrast to the disarray, the weakness, the 
confusion, the antagonism, that now reign in those 
who have reached even the highest measure of santifi- 
cation ! 

5. They are to be exempted from exhausting toil, 
from pain, from sorrow, and from death. "No pangs 



512 THEY ARE TO BE EXALTED IN KNOWLEDGE, 

i 

are ever to wrench their bodies ; no anguish ever to 
wring their hearts ; no darkness ever to settle on 
their brows. There is to be no more curse. Their 
life in immunity from bodily and mental evils, will 
be like the life of holy immortals. 

6. Immense accessions will be made to their know- 
ledge of God, his purposes, and his kingdom. 
They will be acquainted with the boundlessness of 
the realms over which he reigns ; they will know the 
numerous orders and countless multitudes of the in- 
telligences that dwell in them ; the nature of the 
government under which they are placed ; their his- 
tory, their interest in our world, and the manner in 
which the revolt, the perdition, and the salvation of 
men are made to contribute to their instruction, 
their trust in God, and their joy in his service. He 
has built his empire on a scale commensurate with 
the wants in this relation, of the redeemed through 
eternal ages. Great as their attainments will be, 
they can never grasp all that will be within their 
reach. Fresh disclosures will continually be made 
to them of the infinite multitude of great events that 
take place in the distant abodes of the blessed ; and 
revelations of future events will come to them from 
time to time, that will fill their hearts with wonder, 
adoration, and love. 

7. They are to enjoy the presence and the aids of 
the risen and glorified saints. What the offices are 
which those exalted beings are to fill, we know only 



AND TO ENJOY THE AIDS OF THE RISEN SAINTS. 513 

from their titles. They are to be kings and priests 
unto God and to Christ, and shall reign with him a 
thousand years. A king is one who is invested with 
a sovereignty over men : a priest is one who inter- 
venes between men and God, presents to him sym- 
bols of their homage, and bears back to them the 
responses he returns to their acknowledgments, their 
thanksgivings, and their supplications. What the 
form is to be in which they will fill these ministries, 
is not revealed to us. It is enough for us to know 
that it will be of a greatness and beauty suited to 
the sanctitude and majesty of God, and the loftiness 
of their nature ; and will form a fitting expression of 
their love, their gratitude, and their fidelity. "What 
a transcendent prerogative to enjoy the presence, the 
guidance, and the love of such illustrious beings : to 
hear the exposition of God's rights and laws from 
their lips, to receive his messages through their min- 
istry, to be made partakers of their wisdom and their 
faith, and be led on by their hands, in the paths of 
eternal life ! 

8. How benign will the impression on the heart be 
of such a peaceful, holy, and blissful world, lighted 
up by the presence of Christ, compared to the dis- 
tractions, the weaknesses, the sins, the miseries, the 
darkness and death, that now reign here ! Our con- 
ceptions now of what a world of intelligences, raised 
from the ruins of sin to perfect knowledge, holi- 
ness, goodness, and bliss, are but vague and faint. 

22* 



514 THE RELEASE OF SATAN FROM HADES. 

Those who dwell under the sceptre of Christ, will 
behold in it a spectacle of ineffable beauty ; worthy 
of his boundless power and wisdom ; and shedding a 
vivifying, and joy-inspiring light over all the do- 
mains of his illimitable empire. 

VI. 

" When the thousand years are expired, Satan 
shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to 
seduce the nations that are in the four corners of the 
earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to 
battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea 
And they went up on to the breadth of the earth, 
and surrounded the camp of the saints and the 
beloved city. And fire descended from God out of 
heaven, and devoured them. And the devil who 
seduces them, was cast into the lake of fire and brim- 
stone, where are also the wild beast and false prophet, 
and they shall be tormented day and night for ever 
and ever." Ch. xx. 7-10. What a proof this fresh 
plunge of millions into sin, will form that all the holy 
submission, all the loving trust, all the spotless obe- 
dience of the preceding ages, was the work of the 
sovereign power of the Spirit ! He has but to with- 
draw his renewing and sanctifying gifts, and the 
generation that next comes into existence in the natu- 
ral life, will revolt under the impulses of Satan, as 
those do now who are left to the unobstructed sway 
of that tempter. It is to manifest this truth with an 



THE DOOM OP SATAN. 515 

awe-inspiring power, doubtless, that this revolt after 
such ages of obedience is to be permitted. On the 
other hand, in what a lurid light will the unmiti- 
gated malice, the unquenchable hate of Satan appear 
in his renewal, the moment of his release, of his war 
on God and his kingdom ! How clear will it be that 
no punishment can ever soften his obdurate heart, 
no sense of the infinite ruin that follows in his train, 
will ever check his insatiable desire to plunge more 
millions and other worlds to destruction ; and that the 
safety, therefore, and peace of the universe require 
that he should be hurled back to the lake of fire 
that was kindled for him, and lie there in chains 
through his endless existence ! 

VII. 

The doom of Satan and his legions, is to be follow- 
ed by the resurrection and judgment of the unholy 
dead. " And I saw a great white throne, and him 
who sat on it, from whose face the earth' and the 
heavens fled, and no place was found for them. And 
I saw the dead, small and great, standing before the 
throne ; and books were opened ; and another book 
was opened which is of life ; and the dead were 
judged from the things written in the books, accord- 
ing to their works ; and the sea gave up the dead 
who were in it ; and death and hades g^ve up the 
dead who were in them, and every one was judged 
according to their works. And death and the grave 



516 THE DOOM OF THOSE WHOM HE SEDUCES. 

were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second 
death, the lake of fire. And as any one was not 
fonnd written in the book of life, he was cast into 
the lake of fire," ch. xx. 11-15. This is the resur- 
rection of the rest of the dead who were left in the 
grave at the first resurrection, or are to descend there 
after that event, under the avenging judgments by 
which the enemies of Christ, of that period, are to 
be destroyed ; or those of Gog and Magog who are 
to revolt after the release of Satan. And that they 
are all to be unholy, is seen from the absence of any 
intimation that any of their names are written in the 
book of life. They are to be judged according to 
their deeds, as they are written in the books first 
opened. The opening of the book of life seems to 
have been to show that their names were not written 
there. Death and the grave, that are the doom in 
this world of sinners, are then to be cast into the 
lake of fire, with those over whom they had had do- 
minion, and are no more to have a place on the 
earth. What an epoch in the annals of the world ! 
As mankind are to continue in an endless series of 
generations, it indicates that the sentence of death 
brought on them by the fall, is to be absolutely re- 
pealed. They are to be placed in a relation in that 
respect to the law, in which they would have stood, 
had the first pair continued in innocence, and secured 
thereby the holiness and blessedness of all their poster- 
ity. The infinite greatness and glory of Christ's expia- 



SURRENDER OF UNFALLEN WORLDS TO THE FATHER. 517 

tion and righteousness, are now to manifest themselves 
in that transcendent effect. There not only is to be 
no more death. There is to be no more liability to 
it. All that are thereafter to come into being are ad- 
judged unto life, on account of Christ's obedience ; 
as on account of Adam's disobedience, all were ad- 
judged to death. 

vni. 

Having thus reigned on the throne of the universe, 
until he has put all his enemies under his feet, Christ 
is then to return the sceptre of the heavenly worlds 
to the hand of the Father, and thenceforth reign only 
over the redeemed race of men. " Afterward the 
last band (is to be raised from the grave) when he is 
to deliver up the kingdom to God even the Father, 
when he shall have put down all rule and all author- 
ity and power. For he must reign till he has put 
all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that 
shall be destroyed is death. For he hath * put all 
things under his feet. But when he saith all things 
are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, 
who did put all things under him. And when all 
things shall be subdued under him, then shall the 
Son also himself be subject unto him that put all 
things under him, that God may be all in all. 1st 
Cor. xv. 24-28. The kingdom he is to resign to the 
Father, is not the kingdom of this world ; as he is to 
reign here through the ages of ages. Dan. vii. 13-14, 



518 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THAT ACT. 

18, 27 ; Luke i. 33 ; Kev. xi., 11 ; but is the domin- 
ion of the heavenly worlds which he received at his 
exaltation to the right hand of the Father, and is to 
exercise till all enemies are put under his feet. 
What a height and depth of righteousness, of wis- 
dom, and of truth, mark this measure of the eternal 
Word ! Having taken the place of a subject by his 
incarnation, he is, on the final conquest of all his 
enemies, to resume it. Among his enemies is death, 
because of its dominion over his subjects ; which, 
therefore, if not abrogated, would imply that his 
obedience and expiation were inadequate absolutely 
to deliver them from that doom. And he is to con- 
tinue in that relation of subordination to the Father, 
and yield obedience in it through eternal ages ! 
This full and final repeal of the sentence to death on 
all who come into being after his millennial reign is 
closed, it is thus manifest is essential to the full ac- 
complishment of his work. He would fail of giving 
perfect salvation from the effects of the fall, were he 
not to abolish death, the penalty of sin, as well as 
sin itself, of which it is the retributive infliction. 
During the present dispensation he sits with his 
Father on his throne. Ps. ex. 1 ; Heb. 1-3. viii. 1. 
During his millennial reign on the earth, the Father 
is to sit with him on his throne. For the new Jeru- 
salem, the symbol of the glorified saints, is to be the 
tabernacle of God with men, and he is to dwell with 
them, and they are to be his people, and God himself 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THAT ACT. 519 

is to be with them, their God. The throne of God 
and the Lamb is to be in it, and the Lord God Al- 
mighty and the Lamb are to be, by the mode in 
which they will manifest themselves, its temple, and 
are to lighten it with their glory. Rev. xxi. 3, 22, 
23; xxii. 1-5. Instead of reigning separately, they 
are then to reign conjunctively, as they now do in 
heaven. The Father will thus during that period, 
publicly give in the presence of the universe, his 
sanction to all the measures of Christ's administra- 
tion, as he now gives it in heaven. But on the close 
of the millennial reign, the Father is to resume the 
sceptre of the heavenly worlds, and Christ is to be 
in subordination to him ; and for reasons of the 
greatest moment. Two governments, entirely inde- 
pendent of each other, would be inconsistent with 
the unity of God, the equal rights of the Father and 
the Son, and the obligation of all intelligences to 
worship them both as divine. To suppose Christ to 
be an absolutely independent sovereign of" the hu- 
man race, would be to suppose that mankind would 
thenceforth owe no homage except to him. But that 
would be to divest the Father of his title to the sub- 
mission, trust, love, and obedience that are his due 
from men. It would imply also that the Son no 
longer owed allegiance to the Father. But the Son 
is in his human nature, legitimately and necessarily, 
a subject of the Father, and cannot be released from 
fealty any more than any other individual of the race. 



520 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THAT ACT. 

He moreover owes allegiance to the Father in his 
divine nature also, from his voluntarily taking the 
station of a servant by becoming incarnate, and 
placing himself under obligation to render obedience 
in his whole person, as God-man. 

This great change in the administration of the uni- 
verse is thus to spring from the unity of the God-head,, 
and the equal title of the Father and the Son to the 
full love and homage of all creatures. What a 
grandeur of truth, and wisdom, and righteousness 
invests it ! In what sanctity the divine rights ap- 
pear ! With what care are the prerogatives of God, 
and the obligations of creatures guarded from mis- 
apprehension ! No knee in heaven can refuse to 
bow to the Son, and acknowledge him to be Lord, to 
the glory of God the Father, because he reigns only 
. over the race of men ; for he is not to be divested of 
his rights as Jehovah, by that limitation of his 
special dominion. No human tongue can refuse to 
recognize and glorify the Father, because he especially 
reigns over the hosts of heaven ; for he will not have 
relinquished his sovereignty over the earth, but will 
forever exercise it in the presence of his Son, to 
whom he has given it as his kingdom. No child of 
earth will deem it unsuitable to adore and serve the 
almighty Word, because he has united himself to one 
of our race, and taken the place of a subject, and is 
forever to reign in that subordination to the Father. 
Instead, his stooping to become incarnate, and obey, 
and die for men, itself gives him a special title to 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THAT ACT. 521 

their homage and service ; and constitutes a peculiar 
and infinite ground of obligation, to love and glorify 
him. How just to the Father, is the relation that is 
thus to be assumed by the Son ! How suitable to 
Christ ! How majestic his condescension in taking 
the place of a servant ! What strength and beauty 
are to mark his testimony to the rightful supremacy of 
the Father ! In what a dazzling light will his subordi- 
nation through eternal ages appear in the eyes of the 
universe ! How will it be felt that his obedience 
surpasses in greatness and significance, that which 
any other being can render ! And how will the 
beauty and sublimity of his example, give truthful- 
ness and fervor and constancy to the love and 
fidelity of all other holy beings ! 



522 THE GREATNESS OF CHRIST'S PURPOSES 



CHAPTEE XXYII. 

The Grandeur of Christ's Purposes — The Contrast which the mistaken 
views of the Writers I have cited present to his designs — The Faults 
of other Expositors of the Prophecies — A Considerable Period is yet 
to pass before the Coming of Christ — The Verification of the Sixth Seal 
will indicate the approach of the great Events that are to follow the 
Pie constr action of the Fallen Monarchies, and will give birth to vast 
Changes in the Faith of the true Church — The Certainty that Louis 
Napoleon cannot survive the Sixth Seal, and therefore cannot be the 
Antichrist. 

Such are the great events that are to precede and 
attend the coming of Christ ; and such is the dispensa- 
tion he is then to institute over the race. How suit- 
able to him ! How transcending the thoughts, not 
only of the errorists whose misconceptions and misre- 
presentations I have been confuting ; but of the more 
evangelical of the expositors of the prophetic Scrip- 
tures. Before I dismiss them let me recur to the po- 
sition of the Louis Napoleon party, to the views of 
the Evangelical Church, and to the changes that are 
to be wrought in the faith of believers before Christ 
comes and assumes the sceptre of the earth. 

1. A sadder spectacle of narrowmindedness, mis- 
judgment, and delusion, than that presented by the 
writers whose misapprehensions and perversions of 
the word of God I have pointed out, is not often ex- 



COMPARED WITH THE FALSE THOUGHTS OF MEN". 523 

hibited. Not one of their peculiar theories but van- 
ishes into air under the test of a just criticism. Not 
one of the most cherished and vaunted of the novel- 
ties, which give substance and hue to their system, 
that is not either in antagonism to the teachings of 
revelation, or without any authority from them. Not 
one which they attempt to sustain by external testi- 
mony, that is not in contradiction to the facts of his- 
tory. Such is their theory of the wild beast ; their 
scheme of chronology ; their . views of Louis Napo- 
leon ; their notion that the seventieth week of Daniel 
is yet future ; the doctrine several of them advance 
that the chief prophecies of Daniel and John are to 
have a double fulfillment, and all the other elements 
of their system. On the other hand, they have failed 
to catch even a glimpse of a long succession of events 
of the most momentous character, that are to take 
place antecedently to the coming of the Son of Man. 
They appear to be wholly unaware that the catas- 
trophes foreshown under the sixth seal are yet future, 
and confute their confident persuasions in respect to 
the career of Louis Napoleon. The great events that 
are to mark the period of the seventh trumpet and 
seventh vial seem scarcely to have attracted their no- 
tice. The fancy cherished by them with so much ar- 
dor, that all the great actors of the twelve hundred 
and sixty years are to reappear on the scene and re- 
act their tragedies in the last twelve hundred and 
sixty days of this dispensation, leaves them no room 



524 THE DEFECTS AND ERRORS 

for the great judgments and deliverances which God 
has assigned to the period that is to intervene be- 
tween the seventh trumpet and the advent of the 
Messiah. Their errors are thus, not of a slight and 
harmless cast, but are fundamental, and adapted in 
a high degree to bewilder the unlettered and fanati- 
cal, and give a fresh impulse to the jeers of the unbe- 
lieving and hostile. It becomes those, therefore, who 
bold the testimony of Jesus, to point out their char- 
acter, and put the church on her guard against them. 
2. The fact is becoming more and more apparent 
tbfat of the numerous books that have been published 
on the prophecies of Daniel and John, of Isaiah, Jer- 
emiah, Ezekiel and Zechariah, within the last fifty 
years, a large part have been fraught with great and 
mischievous errors. The speculations of writer after 
writer, from Woodhouse, Faber, Cuninghame, and 
Frere, down to the present time, have been confuted 
by events ; and their prognostications met so often 
with confutations that rendered them ludicrous, that 
thousands have been led wholly to repel the subject 
in incredulity and disgust. Where lies the cause of 
their misconceptions and misrepresentations? In a 
measure, doubtless, in some of the writers in a san- 
guine and rash temper, which exposed them to ex- 
travagance and delusion. But those faults, though 
very conspicuous in Faber, Frere, Cuninghame, Ir- 
ving, Cumming, and others, furnish no solution of 
the most important of the mistakes, into which they 



OF EXPOSITOBS. 525 

have run, inasmuch as they had in their hands ample 
means of guarding against them and discerning and 
verifying the truth. The chief reason of their errors 
lay in their proceeding on preconceived and arbitrary 
theories, and neglecting to inquire into the principles 
on which the symbols and figures of the prophecies 
are employed, and to define and exemplify the laws 
by which they are to be interpreted. There is no 
statement of any one of the leading laws of symboli- 
zation in any of the writers of Great Britain, from 
Woodhouse to the Louis Napoleon school ; nor a trace 
of any thorough knowledge of the peculiarities of 
tropical language. Their theories and expositions 
are consequently in a high degree conjectural and 
vague, dreamy and arbitrary. The most farfetched and 
mistaken constructions are put forth with the great- 
est confidence ; and the most irrelevant passages, and 
arguments employed to sustain them. It is not a 
matter of surprise, therefore, that they have .fallen 
into great mistakes, and run in many instances into 
extreme delusions. There can be no exposition of 
the prophecies that is at once truthful and susceptive 
of a clear and satisfactory demonstration, unless it is 
framed by the laws of the media through which they 
are conveyed, whether symbols, figures, or untropi- 
cal language, according to their respective natures, 
and their usage in the Scriptures. Had the writers 
whose volumes are occupied to such an extent by in- 
accuracies, extravagances, and not unfrequently mere 



526 MANY EVENTS YET TO PKECEDE CHRIST 5 S COMING. 

caricatures, qualified themselves for the task of ex- 
positors by a careful culture of those essential 
branches, they would never have fallen into the er- 
rors that now disfigure their pages. When will the 
hour come that those who undertake to unfold the 
great things of God's word, will recoil from so mo- 
mentous a work while unfurnished with the element- 
ary knowledge that is indispensable to their success? 
"When will the time arrive, that those who desire in- 
struction in regard to the prophecies will demand 
that the authors who solicit their patronage shall 
openly state what the great principles are on which 
they proceed, and indicate the passages in the divine 
word by which they regard them as authenti- 
cated ? 

3. It is manifest from the great series of events 
that is yet to precede the coming of Christ, that a 
very considerable period is to pass before that epoch 
arrives. The calculations of such writers as Faber, 
Cuninghame, Frere, Elliott, and others of that class, 
and of the Louis Napoleon school, in respect to the 
time of his advent, or any of the events that are to 
precede it, rest altogether on a false basis, and have 
already been confuted by divine providence : and the 
like fate will overtake all others that may, like theirs, 
be framed for the purpose of sustaining a preconceived 
theory, and producing a sensation. There are no 
means now of determining when the 1260 years of 
Daniel and John began : nor will there be till the 



THE EFFECT OF OPENING THE SIXTH SEAL. 527 

great event — the death of the witnesses, which is to 
mark their close, takes place. What the distance of 
that event is from the present hour, is unknown, and 
for the present, indeterminable. It must, however, 
be a considerable series of years ; as the overthrow 
and reconstruction of the monarchies of the ten 
kingdoms will doubtless occupy a period of some 
length. Though the tendency of the general mind 
throughout the whole of western Europe is manifestly 
in the direction of far more democratic institutions ; 
yet there are no decisive signals of a speedy explosion 
that will precipitate the present governments into 
the gulf of destruction. It may be hastened by a 
sudden catastrophe, such as the death of a leading 
monarch, that should give birth to a struggle of rival 
aspirants for the throne, and lead, first, perhaps, to a 
republic, and then to a military despotism, and con- 
tribute, like the French revolution of 1848-1851, to 
generate similar changes in other kingdoms. In- 
stead of that, it may be the effect of a succession of 
measures that shall gradually transfer the supreme 
power from the monarchs and magnates to the 
people. 

4. When the sixth seal has its accomplishment in 
the engulfing of the monarchies, it will show in the 
most indubitable manner, that the reconstruction of 
the ten kingdoms, and institution of an imperial rule, 
are not far off. That emergence of the wild beast 



528 THE EFFECT OF OPENING THE SIXTH SEAL. 

from the deep in its last form, will demonstrate with 
equal certainty, that the renationalization of the 
Catholic church and the persecution of the witnesses 
are at hand. That those stupendous events are to 
require more than a brief period, seems certain from 
their extraordinary nature, and from the fact, that 
during their progress, a greater revolution than has 
ever yet taken place is to be wrought in the views 
of the true worshipers, both in respect to God's ex- 
clusive right to legislate over the faith of men, and 
of the great scheme of administration he is to insti- 
tute over the world, at Christ's coming. On the one 
side, all the false and impious arrogations by the per- 
secutors, of dominion over the faith and worship of 
their subjects, will be openly and resolutely rejected; 
and on the other, all the mistaken notions that now 
prevail respecting the continuance of the present 
dispensation, till a point is reached at which the 
work of redemption is to end ; that the nations are to 
be converted by the agencies and instrumentalities 
exclusively that are now employed for the purpose ; 
and that heaven alone is to be the scene of Christ's 
personal reign through eternal ages, will be univer- 
sally abandoned and repelled by the believing 
church ; and the great doctrine so clearly taught in 
the Scriptures, and so glorious to him, and propitious 
to the world, of his personal reign on the earth, be 
embraced with a full intelligence of its significance, 



LOUIS NAPOLEON NOT TO SURVIVE THAT SEAL. 529 

joy at the destiny it unfolds to the race, and a fervid 
readiness to consecrate themselves with all their 
energies to the conflicts and toils to which they are 
to be summoned, and especially to the great work 
assigned them, of testifying for God, vindicating his 
rights, and proclaiming the glad tidings of his grace 
and the warnings of his wrath to the nations. This 
vast change of faith and expectation cannot be 
wrought in a moment. It is more likely to demand 
a considerable series of years. "What a host of gifted 
and faithful teachers ; what arguments, what appeals, 
what contests with antagonists, will be requisite to 
achieve that stride in the knowledge and apprecia- 
tion of the truth ! "What effusions of the enlighten- 
ing, convincing, and renovating Spirit, will be need- 
ful to give efficacy to their labors ! 

5. Whenever the catastrophe of the monarchies 
foreshown under the sixth seal, may take place, 
whether soon or after a considerable period, nothing 
can be more certain than that if Louis Napoleon con- 
tinues in his imperial seat till that crisis, his political 
career will then end. As he is now a conspicuous 
and aggressive horn of the wild beast, if he retains 
that place till the earthquake cleaves the ground 
beneath his throne, and the thrones of his associate 
kings, and precipitates him into hades, he can never 
return to regrasp a sceptre, and make himself the 
despotic chief of the ten kingdoms. 

23 



530 AFTER DESCENDING TO HADES, 

Facilis descensus Averni. 
Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis ; 
Sed revocare gradiim, supernasque evadere auras, 
Hoc opus, hie labor est.* 

This will be conceded by all who assent to the in- 
terpretation of the abyss out of which the wild beast 
is to ascend, Rev. xi. 7 ; xvii. 8, as hades, or the 
world of the dead ; inasmuch as he could not return 
to a corporeal life on earth, except by a resurrection, 
which cannot take place ; as none of the dead, except 
the witnesses, are to be raised before Christ comes ; 
and their resurrection is to be not before, or at, but 
after the rise of the beast from the abyss ; while 
none of the unrighteous are to be raised until thou- 
sands of years after the earthquake of the sixth 
seal. 

Though the abyss is unquestionably used, Rom. x. 
7, to denote the world of the dead ; as it was there 
that Christ's soul was not to be left ; and thence that 
it was to be brought back to life ; and though it is 
clear also, that it is the prison of Satan and his 
legions, as it is the name of the place to which the 
demons, Luke viii. 31, intreated that they might not 

* Easy the passage down to hell's dark realms, 
And open wide its portals ever stand ; 
But to retrace the slippery steep, and climb 
Back to high heaven's free air and light serene, 
A baffling struggle that, a fruitless toil. 



HE CANNOT RETURN TO A NEW LIFE. 531 

be sent ; and the realm in which Satan is to be im- 
prisoned during the thousand years ; yet as the pit 
of the abyss from which the smoke and the locusts of 
the fifth trumpet ascended, Rev. ix. 2, was an abyss 
on the earth ; and as abyss in Greek answers to the 
Hebrew term denoting the ocean, and is used in that 
sense in the Septuagint, Gen. i. 2; vii. 11, it may be 
thought possible that abyss is used with that mean- 
ing, Rev. xi. 7, and xvii. 8 ; and that as the great 
sea, Dan. vii. 2, was employed as a symbol of the 
nations in the anarchy and strife out of which the 
rulers denoted by the beasts arose ; so here the abyss 
out of which the wild beast is to rise is a symbol of 
the people of the ten kingdoms in the agitation and 
anarchy into which they are to be thrown by the 
earthquake and other catastrophes of the sixth seal. 
Should it be assumed that it here denotes the sea, 
and is used in that relation, it still will remain 
equally clear that Louis Napoleon cannot be the per- 
son who is to rise to the throne of the new empire, 
act the part of persecutor and Antichrist, and perish 
at the battle of Armageddon. For although on the 
supposition that the sea is the symbol of the people 
of the western empire in a state of revolution, in 
which Louis Napoleon is to lose his sceptre ; it would 
not necessarily follow that he must also lose his life 
by that catastrophe, and thereby be precluded from 
a return to power ; it is yet clear from the nature of 
the revolution symbolized by the earthquake, that 



532 AFTER DESCENDING TO HADES, 

his loss of office and power, if he loses them at that 
crisis, must be final. For the effects wrought by the 
earthquake under the seal, plainly imply that the 
movement of the people which it represents, is to 
divest the monarchs and subordinate officials of all 
their authority, and reduce them, if they escape 
death, to absolute powerlessness. The sun and moon, 
their symbols, are no longer to give their light ; the 
stars are no longer to hold their place in the skies ; 
and the mountains and islands are to be removed 
from their stations and disappear. This clearly 
indicates that every grade of officials is to be inter- 
cepted in its functions, and sink into the condition 
of unauthoritative subjects. That is shown also by 
the description of the wild beast, Rev. xvii. 8 : " The 
beast which thou didst see was, and is not, and shall 
ascend out of the abyss, and go to destruction." 
There is accordingly to be a time between the period 
when it was, and the epoch of its ascent from the 
abyss, in which it literally is not to be. It is there- 
fore, for a space, to be absolutely struck from ex- 
istence. If Louis Napoleon, then, is to be a horn of 
the beast, when it meets that catastrophe, it is mani- 
fest that should he still remain in life, he is to be 
wholly stripped of office and power, and to remain in 
that condition as long as the reign of anarchy con- 
tinues. And this renders it altogether impossible 
that he can reinstate himself on the throne, and 
grasp the dominion, not only of France, but of the 



HE CANNOT KETITEN TO A NEW LIFE. 533 

whole western empire. The reasons for which the 
sceptre will be wrenched from his hands by the 
people will, it may justly be presumed, be such as 
will prompt them to prevent him from resuming it. 
Apart from that, however, the age he has already 
reached, renders it certain that he cannot remain in 
power, ?:or in life during the long period that is to 
elap£3 between the return of the beast from hades 
£tid the battle of Armageddon ; when those whom 
that symbol represents are finally to perish. He has 
already entered his fifty-eighth year. How long a 
time is to pass before the overthrow of the monarch- 
ies of the ten kingdoms, there are no means of deter- 
mining. The sixth vial, there is reason to believe, is 
still to be poured for a considerable space ; as the 
subjects of the Catholic hierarchies have not yet be- 
come alienated from it in a degree that answers to 
the drying of the waters of the Euphrates ; which be- 
speak the general disseverance from the pope and his 
train of priestly officials, of the Catholic populations, 
whom the waters of the river denote. That may in- 
deed be hastened, and perhaps consummated by a 
deprivation of the pope of his civil power ; yet prob- 
ably some years would still be required, should that 
take place, to give full effect to it in Spain, Portu- 
gal, Belgium, Bavaria, Austria, and even Italy and 
France. But a still longer time will be requisite 
probably for the far greater change that is to be 
wrought in the views of the people of the ten king- 



534 FRESH CATASTROPHES ARE TO TAKE PLACE, 

doms, by which they are to be prepared to rise against 
their civil rulers, hurl them from their stations, and 
either release themselves for a time from all govern- 
ment, or else hold the power that is exercised in their 
own hands. How broad a space is to intervene be- 
tween the overthrow of the present monarchies, and 
the rise of the beast from the abyss and organization 
of a new imperial government, cannot be foreseen ; 
nor how long a period, after the reorganization of the 
imperial rule, is to be occupied in the renationaliza- 
tion of the Gatholic hierarchy, in the rise of the wit- 
nesses, their testimony, their arraignment, their 
slaughter, and their death-sleep to the day of their 
resurrection ; but it will undoubtedly be a considera- 
ble series of years. Let it be supposed that ten re- 
volve betwixt the present time and the ascent of the 
beast from the abyss ; — it may be less : it may be fif- 
teen, twenty, or more ; — and that ten more intervene 
between that event and the resurrection of the wit- 
nesses, they would carry' Louis Napoleon — on the 
supposition that he continues in life — beyond his 
seventy-eighth year. Already struck as he is in a 
degree with the effects of age, no one can deem it 
likely that he is still to survive, and with an energy 
equal to the demands of his station, through that 
long period. 

But the resurrection of the witnesses is to give 
birth to another earthquake that is to shake down the 
hierarchy and monarchy of one of the ten kingdoms, 



AFTER THE BEAST RETURNS FROM HADES. 535 

and spread consternation through the whole empire. 
That event is to be followed by the fall of the Turkish 
power ; and probably through the aggression of Rus- 
sia, which may involve a war with France and other 
western kingdoms, unless it should take place at a 
crisis when the maintenance of their own thrones re- 
quires their exclusive attention. The fall of Turkey 
is to be quickly followed by the seventh trumpet, un- 
der which there is to be a third earthquake that may 
again overturn the monarchy of France, as well as of 
the other kingdoms. And that is to be succeeded by 
the seventh vial, under which another and greater 
earthquake is to occur, that is to divide Babylon into 
three parts ; and that is to be followed by her destruc- 
tion, the development of Antichrist, the return of a 
large body of the Jews, the war of the beast and 
kings in Palestine, and their destruction at the battle 
of Armageddon. Can any one persuade himself that 
Louis Napoleon, after reaching his seventy-eighth 
year, should his life be prolonged for a time, is still 
to continue in power and activity, through the politi- 
cal and religious revolutions that are still to occupy 
thirty or forty years beyond that epoch, and not 
improbably more, before the end? The supposi- 
tion is absurd. If he survives the fall of the mon- 
archies under the sixth seal, it is still as certain from 
his age that he must reach his end long before the 
manifestation of Antichrist, the war in Palestine, 



536 NAPOLEON IS NOT TO BE THE ANTICHRIST. 

and the last great battle, as it is that he will, if he 
perishes in the revolution under that seal. 

Whether then the abyss from which the wild beast 
is to ascend is the world of the dead, or the deep of 
the sea ; and if the sea, then a symbol of the nations 
in the commotions of a political revolution in which 
their monarchies are to be overthrown, it is as evi- 
dent as the event itself can make it, that Louis Napo- 
leon cannot be the personage who is to be the Anti- 
christ, and perish thirty, forty, or fifty years after, at 
the battle of Armageddon. 

To the supposition that the abyss from which the 
wild beast is to ascend is hades, it may perhaps be 
objected that it would be a deviation from the course 
of nature to recall the persons denoted by the beast 
that descends to the abyss, to another corporeal life 
here, and give them to resume the official stations 
and prerogatives they had before held. To this it 
may be replied, first, that that deviation from the es- 
tablished course of nature, is no proof that hades is 
not the scene from which the beast is to return. For 
that symbolization does not deviate more widely from 
nature than many other symbols ; such, for example, 
as the gift of wings to the lion and leopard of Dan- 
iel's visions ; of four heads to the leopard ; of seven 
heads and ten horns to the dragon and wild beast of 
the Apocalypse ; to the dragon a tail of such length 
as to sweep down stars to the earth ; to the goat the 



ANTICHRIST IS TO APPEAR AT A LATER DAT. 537 

power to pass by successive leaps from the Propontis in 
western Asia to the Eulseus in Persia, without touching 
the ground ; and to its sixth horn a height so great that 
it struck the orbs of heaven to the earth. Those or- 
gans and acts are at as wide a distance from nature 
as the descent of the beast to hades, and its return to 
a fresh life and agency, would be. 

Its return, however, from hades does not imply 
that the persons who are to constitute the organiza- 
tion it represents at its emergence, are to be identi- 
cally the same that formed the body of rulers it sym- 
bolized at the moment of its dejection to that world. 
They may, and doubtless will, be a wholly different 
group. This is seen from the fact that the beast is 
the symbol of the line of kingly and inferior rulers, 
from the rise of the ten Gothic kingdoms, through all 
the ages to its final destruction. As the death of indi- 
vidual monarchs, princes and lower functionaries, has 
been no obstacle to the perpetuation of the lines of 
rulers ; so it is not any obstacle to the representation 
of the successive groups in the lines by the same un- 
varying symbol. Thus, when the seventh head of 
the beast received its deadly wound in the death of 
Julian, the healing of the wound did not involve the 
restoration of Julian himself to life, and to the scep- 
tre. The healing consisted simply in substituting 
Jovian, a wholly different person, in the place of 
Julian as the imperial chief of the Roman power. In 
like manner, the ascent of the wild beast from hades, 

23* 



538 ANTICHRIST IS TO APPEAR AT A LATER DAT. 

will not involve the restoration to life and power of 
the identical persons who are the rulers of the ten 
kingdoms at the moment of their overthrow under 
the sixth seal ; but simply denotes that another group 
of persons will succeed to their places, with import- 
ant modifications of their relations to each other, and 
to their subjects, and will thence perpetuate the power 
in its essential prerogatives and characteristics, which 
the beast that had perished had represented. 

The design of such a departure from nature, in this 
as in other instances, is, to indicate the extraordina- 
riness of the career those great agents are to run, and 
the singularity of the modifications and catastrophes 
through which they are to pass. And this it is ex- 
pressly foreshown, is to be the effect of the return of 
the wild beast from hades. " And they who dwell 
upon the earth, whose names are not written in the 
book of life from the foundation of the world, shall 
wonder when they look upon the beast that was, and 
is not, and yet is." Rev. xvii. 8-9. Their astonish- 
ment is to arise from their seeing in their very pres- 
ence the power denoted by the wild beast, which af- 
ter having subsisted for ages, had for a period been 
struck from existence. It is to be as unexpected, 
therefore, and as startling a deviation from the course 
the crowd are to anticipate, as it would be if it Jiad 
taken place by a resurrection from the dead. 



THE MONARCHIES OVERTHROWN BY THE PEOPLE. 539 



CHAPTEE XXVIII. 

The Agents by whom the Monarchies are to be overthrown — The Motive 
that is to prompt them to that Measure — The Effect of the recent 
Struggle between Prussia, Austria and Italy, on the Policy of the 
Rulers — A knowledge of these Themes important to all classes — The 
joy-inspiring Prospect that is unfolding to our Race. 

1. But who are the agents by whom the monarchies 
are to be overthrown ? A knowledge of the actors 
in that tragedy, is necessary in order to a jnst esti- 
mate of the tragedy itself. They are not then to be 
foreign assailants, and conquerors; but the popula- 
tions of those kingdoms, and subjects of those mon- 
archs. This is seen from the earthquake, the symbol 
of the revolution in which they are to be struck 
from their thrones, and consigned to hades. For as 
the sun, moon, and stars, which give light to the 
earth and rule its days and nights, its seasons and 
years, are manifestly from their analogy, the repre- 
sentatives of the kings, nobles, and other officials 
who rule the population of the ten kingdoms, and 
determine in a resembling way, their social and polit- 
ical condition ; so, on the other hand, the earth on 
which those heavenly orbs exert their power, is the 
symbol of the population of the ten kingdoms on 
whom the kings, princes, and other officials exercise 



540 THE MONARCHIES TO EE OVERTHROWN BY THE 

their corresponding functions as rulers. They pre- 
sent in those relations, an exact analogy to each 
other. Accordingly as in an earthquake it is the 
vapor, gas, smoke, and ashes thrown up from the 
depths of the earth into the atmosphere, that obscure 
the sun, moon, and stars, and intercept them from 
transmitting their beams to the earth ; so in the polit- 
ical upheaval which the earthquake denotes, it is the 
people themselves who are to exert the acts by which 
the monarchs, and others who have held authority 
over them, are to be divested of their power and 
struck to inaction. Instead of being wrought by a 
voluntary abdication of their places and prerogatives, 
it is to be the work of violence ; as the disruption 
and disarray of the ground in an earthquake, is the 
work of explosive forces that have their place in the 
depths of the earth itself. Foreign nations are to be 
but spectators of the scene in place of such actors as 
were the great conquerors of former ages, — ^Nebu- 
chadnezzar, Cyrus, Alexander, Caesar, Mahomet, 
Ghengis Khan, and Napoleon, who subverted the 
monarchies they overthrew, not by spoken or written 
decrees, but by battles and conquests. There is no 
symbol in the vision of the sixth seal of an armed 
force, until the appearance of the Son of Man in the 
clouds at the last great battle, which is to be at the 
distance, probably, of forty or fifty years from the 
catastrophe denoted by the earthquake. 

It is clear, therefore, that the unofficial population 



PEOPLE THROUGH THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE. 541 

of the ten kingdoms, are to be the agents in the vio- 
lent movements symbolized by the earthquake, by 
which monarchs and other officials are to be thrust 
from their stations and borne down to hades ; and the 
measures they are to take to work that effect, are to 
be essentially the same in the whole group of king- 
doms ; the earthquake representing the nature of the 
agitation it is to assume in each. 

"What then is to be the new force or prerogative by 
which the multitude are to rise to supremacy, and 
deprive the kings, magnates, and other authoritative 
ranks of their political power, and release themselves 
from the bonds of the old governments, inaugurate 
for a time a reign of anarchy, or institute a new 
rule ? The sphere in which they are to act in achiev- 
ing that change, is undoubtedly that of a democracy. 
The political power is to pass from the hands of the 
hereditary rulers, to that of the people ; and not 
silently by the spontaneous concessions or wishes of 
those who are to descend from stations of authority, 
but by the resistless will of the crowd. 

But how is the democracy to acquire that power to 
set aside their hereditary rule, and institute another 
in its place ? It is doubtless to be by the right of 
suffrage, obtained either by the concession of the 
monarchs and parliaments, or by assumption by the 
people and exercise irrespective of law, as a natural 
and inalienable prerogative. 

And that may naturally result from the views of 



542 THE MONARCHIES TO BE OVERTHROWN BY THE 

right and equality that are now extensively enter 
tained by the unfranchised ranks. The doctrine that 
all men are by nature equal in respect to social and 
political prerogatives, and entitled to a voice in the 
enactment of the laws on which they are to rely for 
the protection of their persons, liberty, and property, 
is not only held by a large part of the educated in 
Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, but has 
become one of the most fundamental and influential 
elements, in the popular theories of rights and gov- 
ernments, and is rapidly gaining disciples wherever 
it is proclaimed, and inclining or constraining some 
of the monarchs and parliaments, to yield k either 
absolutely, or in such a degree, that a point may 
naturally be at length reached, at which the popula- 
tion generally, will obtain the prerogative of electing 
their rulers, and thence determining the laws by 
which they are to be governed. 

That this view of the sphere, in which the multi- 
tude are to act at that crisis, is just, is farther seen 
from the express prediction, Daniel ii. 41-43, that 
clay, the symbol of the common people, in distinc- 
tion from iron, the representative of the monarchs 
and other hereditary officials, is to be mixed with the 
iron, in the formation of the image of the Roman 
power in its last stage, when the feet and toes hold 
supremacy. " As the toes of the feet were part of 
iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom — or ruling 
power — shall be partly strong and partly brittle. 



PEOPLE THROUGH THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE. 543 

And, whereas, thou didst see iron mixed with miry 
clay, they (who are denoted by the iron) shall mingle 
themselves with the seed of men," that is with those, 
who instead of being like themselves of hereditary 
rank, are mere subjects. That admission, however, of 
the crowd, to a measure of political power by the right 
of suffrage, instead of strengthening, is to weaken 
the monarchs and nobles. " But they shall not 
cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with 
clay." And the reason is, not simply that the aims 
and interests of the two parties are to be in a mea- 
sure antagonistic ; but, in perhaps a greater degree, 
because of the inadhesiveness of the particles of the 
clay to each other. The mass being brittle, will be 
easily broken into pieces and reduced to dust, and 
thence will fail of the ends for which it was assigned 
a place with the iron. This is accordingly a pro- 
phecy that the accession of the multitude to the 
right of suffrage, in place of giving stability to the 
governments, and yielding to the people the benefits 
they anticipated, is to give birth to antagonisms be- 
tween the two classes, break the populations into 
factions, and issue at length in the overthrow of the 
monarchies and a reign of anarchy. 

The union of these two classes in the European 
governments, has hitherto taken place but partially. 
It is the basis thus far, only of the monarchies of 
France and Italy. Prussia, it is said, lately proposed 
its adoption in Germany, in order to the election of 



544 WHAT MOTIVES ARE TO PROMPT THEM 

a diet for the formation of a new constitution for the 
empire ; but the war of the summer has issued in the 
dissolution of the old confederation, and the erection 
of another by Prussia, the constitution of which, so 
far as it has one, instead of being submitted to the 
suffrage of the people, is dictated by her as conqueror. 
A party in Spain is agitating for the gift of suffrage 
to the people, and the introduction of free institu- 
tions : and great and ardent efforts are in progress 
in Great Britain to extend the franchise to large 
classes that now have no part in the election of 
members of Parliament, or city and county officials. 
It is probably in the inauguration and promotion 
of this great change in the structure of the govern- 
ments, that Louis Napoleon is to exert his chief in- 
fluence in generating the causes and occasions that 
are to issue in the overthrow of the monarchies. 
He is not to dash them to the dust by victories on 
the battle-field. He is not to wrench from them 
their power by feats of diplomacy. He has created, 
and is creating and organizing a force against them 
a thousand times stronger, in the gift to his sub- 
jects of the elective franchise, and prompting its 
introduction in other nations ; as the crowd when 
aware of the power with which that implement 
arms them, will turn and strike his throne from 
beneath him, if he survives a considerable period, and 
the thrones of his compeers, and dismiss their occu- 
pants to the realms of the invisible world. 



TO THE OVEETHKOW OF THE MONARCHIES. 545 

2. What are the motives that are to prompt the 
people of the ten kingdoms to that measure ? Essen- 
tially the same, undoubtedly, as those that led the 
French nation, in 1789-92, to overthrow their mon- 
archy ; and that have roused that people so fre- 
quently since, and those of Spain, Italy, Germany, 
Hungary, Greece and others, to rise against their 
kings and rulers, resist their rule, and seek to insti- 
tute a government more favorable to their personal 
rights, arid the free pursuit of the great ends of life ; 
namely, their degradation to a condition little better 
than that of serfs ; subjection to a despotic rule, that 
disposes of their persons and lives regardless of their 
wishes and their well-being ; wanton oppression ; the 
probability of vassalage to the end of life ; and the cer- 
tainty that there is to be no essential amelioration of 
their condition till a reformation is wrought in the 
government under which they have their lot. This 
piercing sense of injustice ; this revolt from .the arbi- 
trary and remorseless sway of despots, has its 
grounds in the deepest depths of our nature ; it is in- 
stinctive, inerradicable, and irrepressible, and by a 
law of necessity, when violently goaded, asserts itself 
and like a fettered giant roused from slumber by 
tormentors, breaks forth with irresistible fury, dashes 
the oppressor from his seat, and tramples him in the 

dust. 

3. What are to be the effects of the recent stru^e 

between Prussia, Italy and Austria, on the policy of 



546 THE EFFECT OF THE RECENT WAR 

the rulers towards each other, and towards their sub- 
jects, and on the conditions and dispositions of their 
populations towards them ? Are the nations whose 
relative positions are so greatly changed, now to live 
in harmony #ith each other % Are there to be here- 
after no causes of discontent, jealousy, or ambition ? 
]No impulses, from disappointment and mortification 
to revenge ? "No rivalries for power ? ISTo schemes of 
lawless rule ? Is it to be the policy of the several 
governments in the new relations in which they are 
placed, to grant such ameliorations in the conditions 
of their subjects as shall meet their urgent wants, in- 
spire them with contentment, and bind them to their 
respective monarchies with the bonds of an unfalter- 
ing loyalty ? ~No one aware of the position of the 
rulers in relation to their subjects, the policy which 
they deem it necessary to pursue to preserve their 
places and power, and the dissatisfaction, the passion 
for relief from crushing burthens, and the projects of 
revolution and power that have a place in the breasts 
of a large part of the lower and middle classes, can 
persuade himself that such genial results are to spring 
from the sudden aggrandizement of Prussia, the dis- 
array of Austria, the successes of Italy, and the unex- 
pected and annoying position of France. The same 
jealousies and rivalries that have heretofore existed 
between the great nations, the same necessities to the 
governments of a sway that has its ground in a large 
degree in military force rather than law ; and the 



ON THE POLICY OF THE PRESENT RULERS. 547 

same causes of dissatisfaction, restlessness, and resist- 
ance to an oppressive rule, are still to exist in at least 
as great strength as heretofore ; and the drift of the 
general mind, it is clear from the forces that are act- 
ing on it, is to continue to be in the direction of 
representative governments and free institutions 
rather than otherwise, and with an increasing celerity 
and power. Should peace continue for a considera- 
ble period, no essential mitigation can take place of 
the burthens to which the inferior classes are subjected 
for the support of the governments. Let it, for ex- 
ample, be supposed to be the wish of France to 
maintain amicable relations with her neighbors, how 
can she diminish in any large degree her standing 
army, or her navy ? The stability of her government 
depends on the strength and loyalty of her war forces. 
Were Louis Napoleon to reduce those on the land to a 
few regiments^ and those on the water to a few ships, 
his inability, to repel a powerful assailant from without 
would put his independence in jeopardy ; and his in- 
adequacy to repress the restlessness and ambition of 
the lawless within, would issue in the subversion of his 
throne. Surrounded as France is by envious, resent- 
ful and aggressive nations, her self-preservation will 
prompt her to maintain the vast armaments to which 
she owes her present safety. A like necessity will 
naturally compel Prussia to continue a vast military 
array, in readiness at all times to act aggressively or 
defensively, as danger or ambition may suggest. 



548 THE EFFECT OF THE RECENT WAR 

How is she to assure herself of security from France. 
Southern Germany, Russia, unless she has a standing 
army of sufficient strength to defend her independ- 
ence ? Or how is she to control the large bodies of 
newly-acquired subjects, to whom her rule is distaste- 
ful and humiliating, unless she has a power at her 
command adequate to make her will the law ? In 
like manner, Southern Germany, Austria, Italy, 
Spain, Portugal, Great Britain and Russia are to be 
under a necessity of continuing their present military 
establishments. Large bodies of troops, great war- 
like armaments, expensive administrations, and a re* 
sistless, and in a measure a despotic sway, will be, in 
the judgment of the rulers, indispensable to the con- 
tinued stability of their governments ; and they are- 
sure, therefore, to carry that policy to an extent be- 
yond what is necessary, rather than restrict them- 
selves to such limits as to endanger their power. The 
result, therefore, is naturally to be, that not a single 
government of the whole group will sit lightly on its 
subjects. Yast expenditures, exorbitant taxation, 
crushing oppression, arbitrary and cruel conscriptions 
for the army and navy, by which all the prospects 
and hopes of millions will be blasted ; and the wan- 
ton sacrifice of the well-being of the multitude to the 
safety and honor of the rulers, are therefore to be the 
characteristics of their rule generally hereafter, and 
in a higher degree, not improbably, than heretofore. 
The causes of disquiet and alienation from the mon- 



ON THE POLICY OP THE PRESENT RULEES. 549 

archies are to continue and augment in number and 
ascerbity ; and deepen and exascerbate the desire for 
relief, by the substitution of cheaper and more popu- 
lar governments. 

This feeling is to be nourished and strengthened also 
by the far more general diffusion that is to take place 
of political knowledge among the lower classes. The 
whole of Europe is to be put in possession within 
a few hours of their occurrence, not only of all the 
great events of her division of the globe, but with 
almost as much speed of all of which this country 
and this continent are the scene, and feel at the same 
instant their exhilarating or fear-inspiring impulse, 
and be touched with the same sympathy and joy, if 
they are favorable to human rights and happiness ; 
and clouded with the same regret and indignation, if 
they are unjust and malign. The whole civilized 
world is thus to be the spectator of all that is taking 
place in its several divisions, and keep pacejn knowl- 
edge and feeling with the strife that is to rage be- 
tween the rulers and ruled. A revolution in Paris 
in Berlin, in Yienna, or Rome, will flash its lurid, or 
its cheerful light, as it may be contemplated, in a 
day to every capital and city from the Mediterranean 
to the Arctic Sea, and like an earthquake that should 
shake and upheave that wide domain, beget in mil- 
lions of bosoms the same fierce passions, and prompt 
to similar deeds of violence and blood. There is thus 
a preparation for a simultaneous revolution in the 



550 THE JOYOUS PEOSPECT PEESENTED 

kingdoms of Western and Southern Europe that has 
never existed before. "What the issue of the recent 
war is to be, is not yet seen. That the present peace 
is to be more than brief, is not probable. "Whether 
short or long, it will be appropriated, there is reason 
to believe, to measures that contemplate another 
struggle more bloody and disastrous to the well-being 
of the nations than that which has just closed. 

4. How obviously it is the duty of those who wish 
to escape the fearful evils that are coming on the 
nations, to study these great themes, make them- 
selves acquainted with the teachings of the divine 
word in regard to them, and, disinthralling them- 
selves from the indifference on the one side, and the 
false views and fanatical expectations on the other, 
which hold possession of so many minds, be ready by 
a just intelligence and a steadfast faith to meet the 
conflicts to which they are to be called without fal- 
tering, and without alarm. 

5. How joy-inspiring, how sublime, are the pros- 
pects of the race as they are portrayed in the prophe- 
cies I have been unfolding, compared with the notions 
that are generally entertained ! What a morning will 
that be that is to break upon the world, when the 
Son of God flashes the light of his presence on the 
scenes which man has so long been steeping in blood 
and blasting with desolation ; and hushing in a mo- 
ment the tempest of ambition, rage and malevolence 
that reigns in the breasts of men into silence, and 



BY THE PROPHECIES TO THE WORLD. 551 

dashing his irreclaimable enemies to destruction, con- 
verts the surviving nations to spotless rectitude, im- 
bues them with perfect love, and freeing them from 
temptation, from suffering, and from death, gives 
them to dwell under his sceptre in peace and bless- 
edness ! How adapted to the necessities of man ! 
How essential to a perfect redemption ! How conso- 
nant to the infinite price which he paid for their deliver- 
ance from sin and from death ! How suitable to the 
grandeur of his attributes ! "With what effulgence it 
is to invest his eternal reign ! 



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